The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld Ontdek de Fascinerende Wereld van UFO's en UAP's: Jouw Bron voor Onthullende Informatie!
Ben jij ook gefascineerd door het onbekende? Wil je meer weten over UFO's en UAP's, niet alleen in België, maar over de hele wereld? Dan ben je op de juiste plek!
België: Het Kloppend Hart van UFO-onderzoek
In België is BUFON (Belgisch UFO-Netwerk) dé autoriteit op het gebied van UFO-onderzoek. Voor betrouwbare en objectieve informatie over deze intrigerende fenomenen, bezoek je zeker onze Facebook-pagina en deze blog. Maar dat is nog niet alles! Ontdek ook het Belgisch UFO-meldpunt en Caelestia, twee organisaties die diepgaand onderzoek verrichten, al zijn ze soms kritisch of sceptisch.
Nederland: Een Schat aan Informatie
Voor onze Nederlandse buren is er de schitterende website www.ufowijzer.nl, beheerd door Paul Harmans. Deze site biedt een schat aan informatie en artikelen die je niet wilt missen!
Internationaal: MUFON - De Wereldwijde Autoriteit
Neem ook een kijkje bij MUFON (Mutual UFO Network Inc.), een gerenommeerde Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in de VS en wereldwijd. MUFON is toegewijd aan de wetenschappelijke en analytische studie van het UFO-fenomeen, en hun maandelijkse tijdschrift, The MUFON UFO-Journal, is een must-read voor elke UFO-enthousiasteling. Bezoek hun website op www.mufon.com voor meer informatie.
Samenwerking en Toekomstvisie
Sinds 1 februari 2020 is Pieter niet alleen ex-president van BUFON, maar ook de voormalige nationale directeur van MUFON in Vlaanderen en Nederland. Dit creëert een sterke samenwerking met de Franse MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP, wat ons in staat stelt om nog meer waardevolle inzichten te delen.
Let op: Nepprofielen en Nieuwe Groeperingen
Pas op voor een nieuwe groepering die zich ook BUFON noemt, maar geen enkele connectie heeft met onze gevestigde organisatie. Hoewel zij de naam geregistreerd hebben, kunnen ze het rijke verleden en de expertise van onze groep niet evenaren. We wensen hen veel succes, maar we blijven de autoriteit in UFO-onderzoek!
Blijf Op De Hoogte!
Wil jij de laatste nieuwtjes over UFO's, ruimtevaart, archeologie, en meer? Volg ons dan en duik samen met ons in de fascinerende wereld van het onbekende! Sluit je aan bij de gemeenschap van nieuwsgierige geesten die net als jij verlangen naar antwoorden en avonturen in de sterren!
Heb je vragen of wil je meer weten? Aarzel dan niet om contact met ons op te nemen! Samen ontrafelen we het mysterie van de lucht en daarbuiten.
23-04-2025
Jupiter's Atmosphere is a Wild Place
Jupiter's Atmosphere is a Wild Place
By Carolyn Collins Petersen
A cross section of the upper atmosphere, or troposphere, of Jupiter, showing the depth of storms in a north-south swath that crosses the planet’s equator, or equatorial zone (EZ). Blue and red represent, respectively, higher and lower than normal abundances of ammonia gas. Chris Moeckel, UC Berkeley
The weather gets a little wild and weird on Jupiter. How wild? Spacecraft instruments have measured strong winds, tracked fierce lightning, and found huge methane plume storms rising from deep beneath the clouds. How weird? Think: mushballs raining down like hailstones. They're made of ammonia and water encased in a water ice shell. According to planetary scientists, these mushballs plunge through the Jovian atmosphere. What's more, they probably form on the other gas and ice giants, too.
According to planetary scientist Chris Moeckel and his former advisor Imke de Pater at UC Berkeley, the proof for these strange Jovian slushies came from 3D visualizations of the Jovian atmosphere. You can't tell they're there just by looking at the clouds, however. You have to find a way to peer into the atmosphere and measure the chemical fingerprints of the gases it contains. In 2020, data from the Juno mission and observations by radio telescopes on Earth uncovered strange "nonuniformities" in ammonia gas distribution around the planet. In other words, it isn't distributed evenly throughout the atmosphere. The Juno data in particular showed that ammonia isn't just poorly distributed - it's actually depleted to atmospheric depths of about 150 kilometers, according to de Pater.
“Juno really shows that ammonia is depleted at all latitudes down to about 150 km (93 miles), which is really odd,” said de Pater, who discovered 10 years ago that ammonia was depleted down to about 50 km (31 miles). “That’s what Chris is trying to explain with his storm systems going much deeper than we expected.”
A flattened map of Jupiter reveals the distribution of ammonia beneath the planet’s cloud tops, extending tens of kilometers below the visible cloud deck. Red regions indicate where ammonia is depleted, while black regions show where it is rising from deeper within the atmosphere. The depleted zones appear in bands flanking the equator (0° latitude on the map) and at the poles (not shown), while the upwelling of ammonia is most prominent just north of the equator. The striking absence of deep activity in the mid-latitudes suggests that most of Jupiter’s atmosphere is relatively shallow, with only a few storms punching deeper into the planet.
Credit Chris Moeckel and Imke de Pater, UC Berkeley
Follow the Ammonia Trail
To explain that missing ammonia, another scientist named Tristan Guillot proposed a wild idea: that strong updrafts during storms on Jupiter can lift ice particles high above the clouds. There, the ice mixes with ammonia vapor, which melts the ice into a slush. Just like on Earth, as the ice balls rise and fall, they grow. Eventually, these softball-sized mushballs fall back into the atmosphere, taking the ammonia with them. This helps explain why ammonia appears to be missing from the upper atmosphere: it’s being dragged down and hidden deep inside the planet, where it leaves faint signatures to be observed with radio telescopes.
To Moeckel and others, that idea seemed like an "out there" explanation. "Imke and I both were like, ‘There’s no way in the world this is true,’” said Moeckel. “So many things have to come together to actually explain this, it seems so exotic. I basically spent three years trying to prove this wrong. And I couldn’t prove it wrong.”
Jovian Conditions Conducive to Mushballs
It turns out that conditions in Jupiter's atmosphere could support the formation of mushballs. That atmosphere is mostly hydrogen and helium, inhabited by clouds in its upper layers. Beneath the clouds and upper atmosphere lies a deeper layer of fluid metallic hydrogen. A rocky inner core lives deep inside the planet. The atmosphere contains smaller amounts of ammonia molecules and water vapor, which rise and freeze into droplets. On Earth, droplets of water fall onto the surface as rain or hail. However, Jupiter has no surface until you get to the core. So, if those droplets do fall, how far down do they go? How big do they get?
An illustration depicting how violent storms on Jupiter — and likely other gas giants — generate mushballs and shallow lightning. The mushballs are created by thunderstorm clouds that form about 65 km (40 miles) beneath the cloud tops and fuel a strong updraft that carries water ice upward to extreme altitudes, occasionally above the visible cloud layer. Once they reach altitudes of about 22 km (14 miles) below the visible cloud layer, ammonia acts like an antifreeze, melting the ice and combining with it to form a slushy ammonia-water liquid that gets coated with water ice — a mushball. The mushballs keep rising until they become too heavy and fall back through the atmosphere, growing until they reach the water condensation layer, where they evaporate. This ends up redistributing ammonia and water from the upper atmosphere (green and blue layer) to layers deep below the clouds, creating areas of depleted ammonia visible in radio observations.
Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/CNRS
This is where the mushballs come in. First, scientists began trying to figure out the strange distribution of ammonia in particular. There were proposals that water and ammonia ice get locked up in hailstones. However, nobody could quite explain how to form them heavy enough to fall hundreds of kilometers through Jupiter's messy atmosphere. That's when Guillot made his proposal for the growth of slushy hailstones.
Making a 3D Model
To understand the weather conditions and the possible formation of those weird mushballs, Moeckel began working on a different approach based on the observational data. “I essentially developed a tomography method that takes the radio observations and turns them into a three-dimensional rendering of that part of the atmosphere that is seen by Juno,” Moeckel said.
Moeckel's 3D picture of Jupiter’s troposphere shows that the majority of the weather systems on Jupiter really are shallow. Most extend down perhaps only 10 to 20 kilometers below the visible clouds. Most of the colorful, swirling patterns in the bands encircling the planet are part of that shallow contingent of clouds.
Some weather, however, emerges much deeper in the troposphere, redistributing ammonia and water and essentially unmixing what was long thought to be a uniform atmosphere. The three types of weather events responsible are hurricane-like vortices, hotspots coupled to ammonia-rich plumes that wrap around the planet in a wave-like structure, and large storms that generate mushballs and lightning.
Tripping with a Mushball
“The mushball journey essentially starts about 50 to 60 kilometers below the cloud deck as water droplets. The water droplets get rapidly lofted all the way to the top of the cloud deck, where they freeze out and then fall over a hundred kilometers into the planet, where they start to evaporate and deposit material down there,” Moeckel said. “And so you have, essentially, this weird system that gets triggered far below the cloud deck, goes all the way to the top of the atmosphere, and then sinks deep into the planet.”
Unique signatures in the Juno radio data for one storm cloud provided an important clue to the mushball formation. “There was a small spot under a cloud that either looked like cooling, that is, melting ice, or an ammonia enhancement, that is, melting and release of ammonia,” Moeckel said. “It was the fact that either explanation was only possible with mushballs that eventually convinced me.”
What About Other Planets?
The 3D model and explanations of mushballs on Jupiter offer a more complete look at the complicated dynamics of the Jovian atmosphere. Interestingly, it's very likely that similar conditions for mushball creation could exist at the other gas and ice giants of the solar system. If so, that would give planetary scientists much more insight into the interiors of those worlds as well as the activities going on in their atmospheres.
In an age of exoplanet research, it's also likely that researchers can use Moeckel's tools to extrapolate what they've seen at Jupiter to similar-type worlds around other stars. Since they can see only the upper atmospheres of distant worlds, the ability to interpret chemical signatures in those atmospheres using radio and other observations is important.
More Evidence that Snow and Water Formed Many of Mars's Landscapes
More Evidence that Snow and Water Formed Many of Mars's Landscapes
By Matthew Williams
Artist's depiction of water rushing into Mars' Jezero Crater, which billions of years ago was the site of a delta. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Ever since the Mariner probes and Viking missions travelled to Mars, scientists have known that liquid water once flowed on the surface. This is indicated by specific features that form in the presence of water here on Earth, including flow channels, delta fans, hydrated minerals, and sedimentary rocks. In recent decades, the many missions that have studied Mars' atmosphere, surface, and climate have revealed that Mars was a warmer, wetter place during the Noachian period (ca. 4.1 to 3.7 billion years ago).
This has stimulated questions about whether life could have emerged on Mars and where its once-abundant water (and maybe even life) could be found today. A new study by geologists at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder) provides a potential glimpse of what Mars may have looked like billions of years ago. Their findings suggest Mars experienced heavy precipitation that likely fed valleys and channels that carved the features we still see there today.
While most scientists agree that Mars once had flowing water on its surface, where it came from remains a mystery. While most maintain that a global ocean once covered the entire Northern Lowlands of Mars, while large bodies spotted the southern hemisphere, many scientists assert that Mars was always cold and dry. In this scenario, water existed mainly as ice caps and glaciers that occupied the Northern Lowlands, which experienced occasional melting for short periods.
This is largely based on the fact that roughly 4 billion years ago, the young Sun was only 75% as bright as it is today. As a result, Mars must have had a significant greenhouse effect to maintain temperatures warm enough to support liquid water. Hence, there is an ongoing debate between proponents of the "warm-and-wet" versus the "cold-and-dry" models. To address this, Steckel and her colleagues ran a computer simulation originally developed for Earth studies by Professor Tucker. As Steckel explained in a CU Boulder press release:
"You could pull up Google Earth images of places like Utah, zoom out, and you’d see the similarities to Mars. It’s very hard to make any kind of conclusive statement. But we see these valleys beginning at a large range of elevations. It’s hard to explain that with just ice."
The researchers used the software to model the evolution of the Martian landscape on synthetic terrain similar to Mars' equatorial region. They added water from precipitation to some of their models and melting ice caps to others, and then simulated how this would shape the landscape over tens to hundreds of thousands of years. The team then compared the two models to data obtained by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) and Mars Odyssey spacecraft. The precipitation model was consistent with what we see around Mars' equator today.
These include the vast network of channels in the Martian highlands that open onto the low-lying areas in the Northern Lowlands. The rock deposits and delta fans found in these areas further indicate that vast quantities of water once flowed across the landscape. "You'd need meters deep of flowing water to deposit those kinds of boulders," said Hynek. "Once the erosion from flowing water stopped, Mars almost got frozen in time and probably still looks a lot like Earth did 3.5 billion years ago."
While these results are convincing, there are still unanswered questions about Mars' ancient climate. For example, scientists are still unsure how Mars could maintain temperatures warm enough to support precipitation and flowing water, given how the Sun's output was less than it is today. However, this study still provides scientists with a glimpse at what Mars experienced in the past and could also provide new perspectives into the geological history of Earth.
Mars's Atmosphere Used to be Thicker. Has Curiosity Found Where it All Went?
Mars's Atmosphere Used to be Thicker. Has Curiosity Found Where it All Went?
By Andy Tomaswick
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover sees its tracks receding into the distance at a site nicknamed “Ubajara” on April 30, 2023. This site is where Curiosity made the discovery of siderite, a mineral that may help explain the fate of the planet’s thicker ancient atmosphere. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Planetary scientists have plenty of theories about Mars and its environmental past. Two of the most widely accepted are that there was a carbon dioxide atmosphere and, at one point, liquid water on Mars' surface. However, this theory has a glaring problem: Where should the rocks have formed from the interactions between carbon dioxide and water? According to a new paper by scientists at several NASA facilities using data collected by the rover Curiosity, the answer is right under the rover's metaphorical feet.
According to geology, carbon dioxide and water should react together to form "carbonates," a type of mineral that contains an ion made up of carbon and oxygen. This process is relatively common on Earth and even in some manufacturing processes, but the results have never before been seen on Mars, at least not in any quantity.
That is despite a significant amount of effort spent looking for them. Rovers have looked for them to no avail. Even satellites have done spectroscopy on most of the planet and haven't seen anything that could be a carbonate anywhere near the quantities to prove that Mars had an atmosphere of carbon dioxide and liquid water at one time. That was, until the little rover that could stepped in.
Curiosity has had a hand in plenty of important discoveries on the Red Planet. Here's a video from Fraser 7 years ago that discusses some of them.
Curiosity has dug holes throughout Mars' Gale Crater for almost 13 years. During that time, some significant discoveries were made, but this latest one has dramatically impacted our understanding of the evolution of the Martian climate. At three different drill sites around Mount Sharp, Curiosity found evidence for a mineral called siderite, a carbonate material formed with iron.
Siderite itself wasn't present on the surface, though. It was only found when Curiosity drilled down 3-4cm into the surface of a rock and analyzed the resulting drill powder in its CheMin instrument. After the instruments zapped it with X-rays, the researchers found the presence of the elusive mineral that could explain where Mars' atmosphere went, at least partially.
The presence of carbonates under layers of other rock could also explain why they have been so hard to find up until now. Orbiting satellites wouldn't be able to see a few centimeters into existing rock, and most rover spectroscopy is done without drilling into a sample, so they wouldn't have been able to detect it either. But finding any does lend credence to the idea that Mars used to be habitable for basic microorganisms, at one point at least.
Here's a look back at Curiosity's first science target - Jake the Rock.
Scientists from several different NASA centers, including the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Curiosity operation), Ames Research Center (CheMin Instrument operation), and John Space Center (data analysis) contributed to the work. According to Benjamin Tutolo, a professor at the University of Calgary, "the discovery of abundant siderite in Gale Crater represents both a surprising and important breakthrough in our understanding of the geologic and atmospheric evolution of Mars."
It certainly does, though the estimated amount of siderite and other carbonates based on this newest data isn't enough to explain where all of Mars' atmosphere went. There could be other, more abundant hiding places, or the Red Planet could have lost its atmosphere slowly over time due to the solar wind, since it has lacked a magnetic field for so long. As rovers continue to explore its surface, a steady stream of new findings will continue to intrigue planetary scientists, and hopefully help them refine their theories on how Mars came to be what it is today.
NASA's Lucy Probe Snaps Its Closeup of a Weirdly Shaped Asteroid
NASA's Lucy Probe Snaps Its Closeup of a Weirdly Shaped Asteroid
By Alan Boyle
NASA's Lucy probe captured this closeup of the asteroid Donaldjohanson from a distance of about 660 miles. (NASA / Goddard / SwRI / JHUAPL / NOIRLab)
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft made a successful flyby of the second asteroid on its must-see list over the weekend, and sent back imagery documenting the elongated object’s bizarre double-lobed shape.
“Asteroid Donaldjohanson has strikingly complicated geology,” said Hal Levison, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute who serves as the Lucy mission’s principal investigator. “As we study the complex structures in detail, they will reveal important information about the building blocks and collisional processes that formed the planets in our solar system.”
Lucy came as close as 600 miles (960 kilometers) to Donaldjohanson on April 20, snapping images every two seconds or so as it zoomed past. The pictures confirmed the asteroid’s status as a contact binary — that is, a compound object formed by the sticky collision of two smaller celestial bodies. Donaldjohanson is somewhat larger than it was previously thought to be, with a length of about 5 miles (8 kilometers) and a width of 2 miles (3.5 kilometers) at the widest point.
The Easter encounter took place three and a half years after Lucy was launched, and 17 months after the 52-foot-wide probe flew past its first target asteroid, Dinkinesh, and a mini-moon called Selam. Like Donaldjohanson, Selam was found to be a contact binary.
Researchers consider both of Lucy’s encounters in the main asteroid belt, which lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, to be mere warmups for the mission’s main event: a detailed study of so-called Jupiter Trojan asteroids. Such asteroids are trapped harmlessly at resonance points in Jupiter’s orbit due to the giant planet’s gravitational influence. No spacecraft has ever gotten close to a Jupiter Trojan.
Tom Statler, NASA program scientist for the $989 million Lucy mission, said the quality of the early imagery demonstrates the “tremendous capabilities” of Lucy’s instruments. “The potential to really open a new window into the history of our solar system when Lucy gets to the Trojan asteroids is immense,” he said.
Over the next few weeks, researchers will retrieve, process and analyze data from Lucy’s black-and-white imager as well as its color imager, infrared spectrometer and thermal infrared spectrometer. The spacecraft is scheduled to spend most of this year traveling through the main asteroid belt.
Lucy’s first encounter with a Jupiter Trojan asteroid, known as Eurybates, is due to take place in August 2027. Four additional Trojan encounters will follow between 2027 and 2033.
Computer simulation of the solar wind. Credit - NASA / SwRI / Craig DeForest
Where did the water we believe is on the Moon come from? Most scientists think they know the answer - from the solar wind. They believed the hydrogen atoms that make up the solar wind bombarded the lunar surface, which is made up primarily of silica. When that hydrogen hits the oxygen atoms in that silica, the oxygen is sometimes released and freed to bond with the incoming hydrogen, which in some cases creates water. But no one has ever attempted to replicate that process to prove its feasibility. A new paper by Li Hsia Yeo and their colleagues at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center describes the first experimental evidence of that reaction.
To perform this experiment on Earth, the authors needed two things: something equivalent to the solar wind and something comparable to lunar regolith. The solar wind is comprised of protons—basically hydrogen atoms with their electrons stripped off. Mimicking this on Earth proved tricky, as they had to build a custom miniaturized particle accelerator to simulate the solar wind.
While it might seem technically simpler, their next task was certainly more administratively challenging—obtaining a sample of actual Moon regolith from the Apollo missions. Dust collected during Apollo 17's final lunar trip had already been packed in an airtight storage container since the 1970s, but the authors went ahead and baked the sample again just to make sure there was no water present.
Fraser discusses the best use of the Moon.
Once the samples were obtained and the accelerator was set up, the final piece of the experimental puzzle was a spectrometer, which could show the presence of water. When ready, they blasted the sample with enough simulated "solar wind" to be the equivalent of about 80,000 years on the lunar surface. During that time, they watched for infrared dips around 3um, precisely what they saw, representing a tell-tale water sign.
However, it is also a tell-tale sign of hydroxyl (OH), which has the same spectral profile as water and is also one of the potential by-products of the solar wind hitting the lunar regolith. As a press release announcing the finding states, "they can't conclusively say if their experiment made water molecules." However, finding even hydroxyl molecules is a step in the right direction.
One other data point lends credence to the continual replenishment of water via the solar wind, instead of more sporadic replenishment from sources such as micrometeoroids - the spectrographic signal of water seems to vary with time. It is strong in the morning, decreases throughout the lunar "day", and then increases again over the lunar "night". The most obvious explanation for this cycle is that some water burns off during the day, being exposed to the Sun. Over the two-week-long lunar night, the amount of water starts to build back up again, as would be expected if it is created by an external force such as the solar wind, and not being stripped away right away.
New data from LADEE shows how water might show up on the Moon after a micrometeoroid impact. Credit - NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab
Ultimately, this experiment lends more credibility to the idea that lunar water is created by the interaction between the lunar regolith and the solar wind and that the solar wind itself is always slightly replenishing the amount of water available on the Moon. Artemis astronauts, or whoever winds up back on the lunar surface, will undoubtedly be happy for that, no matter how that water got there.
NASA's Curiosity Rover has discovered long carbon chains on Mars. On Earth, molecules like these are overwhelmingly produced by biological processes.
NASA's Curiosity rover took this selfie while inside Mars' Gale crater on June 15, 2018, which was the 2,082nd Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission.
(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
The longest molecules ever found onMarshave been unearthed by NASA's Curiosity rover, and they could mean the planet is strewn with evidence for ancient life.
Molecule chains containing up to twelve carbon atoms linked together were detected in a 3.7 billion-year-old rock sample collected from a dried-up Martian lakebed named Yellowknife Bay, according to a study published March 24 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
These long carbon chains are thought to have originated from molecules called fatty acids, which, on Earth, are produced by biological activity. While fatty acids can form without biological input, which may be the case on Mars, their existence on the Red Planet means that signs of life may be lurking within its soil.
"The fact that fragile linear molecules are still present at Mars' surface 3.7 billion years after their formation allows us to make a new statement: If life ever appeared on Mars billions of years ago, at the time life appeared on the Earth, chemical traces of this ancient life could still be present today for us to detect," study co-author Caroline Freissinet, an analytical chemist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research in the Laboratory for Atmospheres and Space Observations, told Live Science.
The molecules — hydrocarbon strings of 10, 11 and 12 carbon atoms called decane, undecane, and dodecane — were detected by Curiosity's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument.
No stone unturned
The Curiosity Rover arrived on Mars in 2012 at the Gale Crater, a massive 96-mile-wide (154 km-wide) impact crater formed by the planet's collision with an ancient meteorite. In the years since, the rover has traveled about 20 miles (32 km) across the crater, investigating places including Yellowknife Bay and Mount Sharp (Aeolis Mons), a 3.4-mile-high (5.5 km-high) mountain in the center of the crater.
Nicknamed "Cumberland", the sample analyzed for the new study was drilled by Curiosity in 2013 from Yellowknife Bay, and previous analyses found it to be rich in clay minerals, sulfur, and nitrates.
But despite many thorough tests, the hydrocarbon strings in the sample remained undetected for more than a decade. The hydrocarbons were actually discovered by accident as part of an attempt to find the building blocks of proteins — known as amino acids — in the sample.
The researchers behind the new study thought to test out a new method for finding these molecules by pre-heating the sample to 1,100°C (2,012°F) to release oxygen before analysis. Their results showed no amino acids, but, by pure luck, they discovered the fatty molecules hiding there instead.
"The excitement was super high when I saw the peaks on the spectrum for the first time," Freissinet said. "It was both surprising and not surprising. Surprising because those results were found on the Cumberland sample that we had already analyzed many times in the past. Not surprising because we have defined a new strategy to analyze this sample."
"New method, new results," she added.
The researchers suggest that the molecules may have broken off from the long tails of fatty acids named undecanoic acid, dodecanoic acid, and tridecanoic acid, respectively. Fatty acids are long chains of carbon and hydrogen with a carboxyl (-COOH) acid group at the end.
NASA graphic showing the long-chain organic molecules decane, undecane, and dodecane, which are the largest organic molecules discovered on Mars to date.
(Image credit: NASA/Dan Gallagher)
Life-forming chemistry
To test this theory, the researchers mixed undecanoic acid into a Mars-like clay in the lab before performing a test similar to that carried out by the SAM instrument As expected, the undecanoic acid broke down to decane, indicating that the carbon chains could indeed have originated from fatty acids.
On Earth, molecules like these are overwhelmingly produced by biological processes, but they can also occur naturally without life. However, non-biological processes usually only result in fatty acids with fewer than 12 carbon atoms, the researchers say. While the longest carbon chain detected by SAM had 12 carbons, the instrument is not optimized to detect longer molecules, meaning that it is possible longer chains were also present.
"There is evidence that liquid water existed in Gale Crater for millions of years and probably much longer, which means there was enough time for life-forming chemistry to happen in these crater-lake environments on Mars," study co-author Daniel Glavin, a researcher at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said in a NASA statement.
Regardless of what made them, the detection of the carbon chains and their likely origins as fatty acids confirms that Curiosity can detect molecules of this kind, and that the molecules can remain preserved for billions of years in the Martian environment. The researchers hope to one day bring samples of Martian soil back home to Earth to properly analyze the contents, and hopefully solve the mystery of the Red Planet's elusive life once and for all.
"We are ready to take the next big step and bring Mars samples home to our labs to settle the debate about life on Mars," said Glavin.
This article was originally published on March 25, 2025
Mass extinctions have shaped life on Earth for millions of years, erasing dominant species and paving the way for new life to thrive. From the asteroid that ended the reign of the dinosaurs to the current biodiversity crisis driven by human activity, each extinction reshapes the evolutionary landscape. As the climate changes and ecosystems degrade, researchers warn that humans could be steering the planet toward another mass extinction.
This sobering possibility raises a fascinating question: which species might inherit the Earth if humanity vanishes? Dr. Tim Coulson, an ecologist at the University of Oxford, suggests an unlikely candidate—octopuses.
Octopuses: Ocean’s Master Survivors
“Octopuses have a distinct advantage in the race for survival,” Coulson explains. Unlike humans, they exist in diverse habitats, from shallow coastal waters to the deep sea. Their adaptability could allow some species to endure even catastrophic changes. “If humans ceased hunting them, octopuses might have the opportunity to diversify and expand their habitats over time,” he adds.
While the notion of octopus civilizations may sound far-fetched, history shows that ocean-dwelling creatures can evolve rapidly after mass extinctions. Dr. Andrew Whiten, a zoologist at the University of St. Andrews, points out that mammals rose to prominence after dinosaurs vanished, paving the way for humans. Could octopuses follow a similar path?
Octopuses already display remarkable problem-solving skills. From using coconut shells as makeshift shelters to escaping aquarium tanks, these marine animals show a level of intelligence rarely seen in other species. Some even use tools to solve puzzles, a trait often associated with advanced cognitive abilities.
“An octopus’s nervous system functions more like a distributed processing network than a central brain,” explains Dr. Andy Dobson from Princeton University. “Their intelligence comes from their ability to coordinate multiple limbs and process vast amounts of sensory data.”
Their dexterity also sets them apart. “Octopuses can manipulate objects with unparalleled precision,” says Coulson. “While crows and other birds exhibit tool use, they don’t match the fine motor skills of an octopus.”
Challenges to Octopus Civilizations
Despite their intelligence, octopuses face significant obstacles in evolving into complex societies. Dr. Peter Godfrey-Smith of the University of Sydney highlights their solitary nature. “Octopuses lack the social structure necessary to build a culture,” he explains. “For them to form communities, they’d need to develop stronger social bonds and nurture their young differently.”
These changes, however, may be a long shot. Octopuses have existed for over 100 million years without evolving significant social behavior. Still, recent studies suggest that some species show signs of communal living, offering a glimmer of hope for their societal potential.
Human Impact and Evolutionary Roadblocks
Ironically, human activity could hinder octopuses’ evolutionary journey before it even begins. Pollution, ocean warming, and overfishing threaten marine life globally. Microplastics, in particular, may harm octopuses in ways scientists are only beginning to uncover.
If not octopuses, who might inherit the Earth? Dobson speculates that nematodes—tiny, resilient worms—could dominate, while Godfrey-Smith places his bets on highly adaptable birds like cockatoos.
Whether or not octopuses ever build underwater cities, their unique traits make them one of nature’s most intriguing survivors. As humanity confronts its impact on the planet, understanding the resilience of other species could offer insights into the future of life on Earth.
Mars Has the Remnants of a Lopsided Magnetic Field
Mars Has the Remnants of a Lopsided Magnetic Field
By Andy Tomaswick
Simulation of the magnetic fields that were formerly found surrounding Mars. Credit - Ankit Barik / Johns Hopkins University
Scientists have known for a while that Mars currently lacks a magnetic field, and many blame that for its paltry atmosphere - with no protective shield around the planet, the solar wind was able to strip away much of the gaseous atmosphere over the course of billions of years. But, evidence has been mounting that Mars once had a magnetic field. Results from Insight, one of the Red Planet's landers, lend credence to that idea, but they also point to a strange feature - the magnetic field seemed to cover only the southern hemisphere, but not the north. A team from the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics thinks they might know why - in a recent paper, they described how a fully liquid core in Mars could create a lopsided magnetic field like the one seen in Insight’s data.
The Earth's core isn't completely molten despite what you may have learned in elementary school. There are two distinct cores - a solid "Inner" core and a molten "Outer" core. The inner core remains solid due to the immense pressures on the iron and nickel found there. So, the magnetic field that covers our whole planet is, in fact, created only by the Outer Core.
Researchers have long thought that a similar dynamic, solid inner and molten outer core, was present on Mars when it maintained a magnetic field billions of years ago. After about 3.9 billion years, the rocks that formed some of the large impact basins from that time, such as Hellas and Isidis, would contain rocks that would have magnetized while they were cooling due to the presence of the field. Since they don't, there is little evidence for a strong global magnetic field past that point. The going theory was that, as the planet's core cooled, the entire core became solid, eliminating the spinning molten metal that creates the magnetic field in the first place.
Fraser discusses the question of when Mars' dynamo shut down.
However, there was a strange feature in Mars' magnetic field—a massive difference in strength between the field in the northern and southern hemispheres. This dichotomy was first noticed during the Mars Global Surveyor mission back in 1997, but data from the Insight lander also confirmed a stark difference between the two hemispheres.
Various explanations have been offered for why the dichotomy existed. These ranged from the effects of large asteroid impacts to very early localized tectonic activity. However, the scientific community has not widely accepted previous explanations.
Enter the new theory from Chi Yan of the University of Texas and their co-authors. Theirs is a two-fold explanation. First, the red planet could have had a wholly molten core, and second, a massive temperature difference between the northern and southern hemispheres led to the heat escaping only in the southern hemisphere.
Magnetic fields can be artificial - as Fraser discusses here.
In Mars' case, a molten core would be a primary mover of the process known as a "planetary dynamo," which creates planetary-scaled magnetic fields. With a solid inner core like the Earth's, the dynamo effect could have been disrupted by inefficiencies in the system's fluid dynamics.
It could also explain how the temperature gradients allow such uneven heat extraction. If the southern hemisphere had much higher thermal conductivity, heat would be more likely to flow through it, causing the churning that creates the planetary dynamo to happen primarily on the southern side of the planet.
To prove their point, the authors created a model version of early Mars using a supercomputer at the Maryland Advanced Research Computing Center. They varied the fluid dynamics of Mars as well as the conductivity of its crust. They found that the conditions that most accurately matched the results from Insight and Global Surveyor occurred when Mars' core was wholly molten, and there was a significant difference in the thermal conductivity of the northern and southern hemispheres.
Keeping Mars' any artificial atmosphere Mars has would require a magnetic field - or something similar.
As with all research, there is plenty more left to do. The authors suggest further analysis of some of the seismic data from Insight to see if any additional data was already collected that could align with the molten core theory. Other potential paths forward could include improved modeling for a broader range of internal and external planetary conditions or a deeper understanding of Martian meteorites from various regions and times.
For now, this new theory seems to hold water—or molten iron, depending on who you ask. But there is a lot more work that needs to be done to prove this theory and its implications for the existence of life on Mars.
Artist's impression of water under the Martian surface. Credit: ESA
The surface of Mars is extremely cold, irradiated, and desiccated. But at one time, the planet was much warmer and wetter, with flowing water, lakes, and even an ocean covering most of its northern hemisphere. Because of this, scientists speculate that life may have emerged on Mars billions of years ago and could still be there today. Ever since the Viking 1 and 2 missions landed on the surface in 1976, the search for evidence of past (and maybe present) life has been ongoing.
As missions likeCuriosityand Perseverance continue to explore promising regions that were once lakebeds (the Gale and Jezero craters), there are still questions about where to look next. In a recent paper, researchers proposed searching for photosynthetic bacteria embedded in the snow and ice around Mars' mid-latitudes. Using "radiatively habitable zones" on Earth as a template, they argue that photosynthetically active bacteria could survive within exposed patches of ice.
On Earth, bacteria can survive and thrive in ice, even at depths of several meters. Earth's protective ozone layer protects these organisms from harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation, allowing them to safely absorb what is known as photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). On Mars, which has a thin atmosphere (less than 1% of Earth's) and no ozone layer, about 30% more damaging UV radiation reaches the surface. However, numerical modeling predicts ice and snow around the equator can melt below the surface.
The presence of this liquid water at these depths could make these subsurface environments the most easily accessible locations for future astrobiology missions. To investigate this possibility, the team developed a radiative transfer model (RTM) based on previous research that employs the Delta-Eddington method (a simplified means of calculating radiative fluxes). This model allowed them to simulate vertically-stacked layers of snow, ice, and Martian dust.
Since solar flux has not yet been measured within ice on Mars, the team employed glacier ice in Greenland as an analog. Their results showed that in all cases, most of the solar radiation is absorbed within the top few meters of the ice, but increases based on grain size. Overall, they found that solar radiation can reach a maximum depth of about 6.5 meters (21.3 ft) in clean ice. At the same time, biologically damaging UV penetrated to about 3 m (~10 ft) in clean granular, packed ice (firn). Their results also indicated that PAR penetration varied considerably based on the amount of dust in the ice.
For ice with 0.01% dust, PAR reached just 25 cm (~10 inches) below the surface, while the peak penetration depth of UV was reduced to about 7 cm (2.75 inches). For ice with 0.1% dust concentrations, this was reduced to only 5 cm (~2 inches), with a peak UV penetration of 1.5 cm (0.6 inches). Overall, they found that Mars may have radiatively habitable zones within exposed patches of mid-latitude ice at depths ranging from a few centimeters for dusty ice to several meters for cleaner ice.
On Earth, microbes require temperatures of more than -18 °C (-0.67 °F) for cell division to occur. Meanwhile, favorable solar radiative conditions and the presence of liquid water are required for photosynthesis. And while conditions within the Martian polar ice are too cold for melting to happen at these depths, numerical models suggest that small amounts of melt and runoff can occur in exposed patches of mid-latitude snowpack just beneath the surface. As the team indicates, this could have significant implications in the search for life on Mars:
"Under similar ephemeral near-freezing conditions, widespread microbial habitats containing cyanobacteria, chlorophytes, fungi, diatoms, and heterotrophic bacteria are found in the shallow subsurface (top few centimeters to meters) of ice sheets, glaciers, and lake ice containing dust and sediment on Earth.
"In the summer, ice in the shallow subsurface melts due to solar heating at these locations. Photosynthesis then occurs in the subsurface, below a translucent ice lid, with nutrients scavenged from the dust and sediment present in the subsurface liquid water. During winter, the subsurface liquid refreezes, and photosynthesis ceases until the next summer."
Therefore, if ice and snow in equatorial regions experience seasonal melting, microbes like cyanobacteria could combine this water with nutrients from Martian dust in the ice to conduct photosynthesis. If such habitats exist, they would constitute the most easily accessible locations for finding evidence of life on Mars.
But what's exciting is that K2-18b is very unlikely to be a one-off in the universe – meaning many others that are similar likely exist too.
Peter Vickers, a philosophy of science professor at Durham University, said there are likely 'millions' of planets outside our galaxy hosting some kind of lifeforms.
'If it does turn out that K2-18b has life, then it is virtually guaranteed that there are million more exoplanets harbouring extraterrestrial life,' he told MailOnline.
Planet K2-18b is a suspected a 'hycean' world - a rocky planet with a hydrogen-rich atmosphere and vast oceans of water
(artist's impression)
But what's exciting is that K2-18b is very unlikely to be a one-off in the universe - meaning many others like it likely exist
Professor Vickers added: 'Hundreds of millions is pretty safe estimate and not overblown.'
Planet K2-18b is in the same galaxy as us – the Milky Way – but there are billions to trillions of estimated galaxies in the universe.
The academic stressed that we've only sampled a 'tiny, tiny percentage of planets' in our galaxy alone, using various space and Earth-based telescopes.
So the universe as a whole surely has many more planets waiting to be found that have conditions right for life to thrive.
'It would be like dipping a cup at random in an ocean and getting a fish, and then asking the question whether there are probably lots of other fish in the ocean, he said.
And if you think biological activity does exist out there in the vast reaches of space, the likelihood is that experts in the field would agree with you.
A survey by Professor Vickers and colleagues conducted last year suggests this is the general consensus among astrobiologists (scientists who study extraterrestrial life).
Out of 521 astrobiologists who responded, 86.6 per cent agreed or strongly agreed it’s likely that extraterrestrial life (of at least a basic kind) exists somewhere in the universe, while less than 2 per cent disagreed and 12 per cent were neutral.
On Earth, DMS and DMDS are only produced by living organisms - mostly microbial life such as marine phytoplankton (like the ones pictured). Life on K2-18b could be similar
No life beyond Earth has ever been found and there is no evidence that alien life has ever visited our planet. But this may be due to extraterrestrial life being too scared of 'dangerous' and 'violent' humans
(artist's impression of the typical 'alien' concept)
Planet K2-18b: Key facts
Discovered: 2015
Star: K2-18
Orbital duration: 33 days
Constellation: Leo
Mass: 8.6 times that of Earth
Radius: 2.6 times that of Earth
What's more, 88.4 per cent of non-astrobiologists agreed – showing astrobiologists aren't biased toward believing in extraterrestrial life compared with other scientists.
'So, based on this, we might say that there’s a solid consensus that extraterrestrial life, of some form, exists somewhere out there,' said Professor Vickers and colleagues in a piece for The Conversation.
British science writer and biologist Matthew Ridley believes it would be 'fairly bizarre' if Earth was the only planet in the universe with life on it.
'Given the scale of the universe, it would be more surprising if life did not exist in it,' he says in today's Daily Mail.
'If [life] started billions of years earlier on other planets, then it is probable that it has had time to generate not just microbes and algae, but technology-generating beings too, and probably super-intelligent ones.'
However, Viscount Ridley said perhaps 'we should keep quiet and not let the aliens know we exist' in case our planet is destroyed or conquered.
Mark Buchanan, a physicist and science writer, also thinks there are many more exoplanets like K2-18b that harbor similar lifeforms.
'It's only in the past decade or so that our telescopes have become powerful enough to find and examine planets orbiting other stars,' Buchanan told MailOnline.
Using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers identified huge quantities of chemicals only made by living organisms on Earth. They have picked up the chemical fingerprints of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) - molecules that are primarily produced by microbial life such as marine phytoplankton
'Plausible estimates put the number of potentially life supporting planets in the hundreds of millions or more.
'The universe really is a big place and we're just beginning to explore what is out there.'
Buchanan called the new announcement from University of Cambridge scientists a 'fascinating finding' as it suggests there's 'more advanced life forms elsewhere'.
The new findings provide the 'strongest hint yet' of biological activity outside our solar system according to the researchers – although they are yet to be definitively confirmed.
What have scientists found at Planet K2-18b?
Investigations into planet K2-18b are being led by Dr Nikku Madhusudhan, an astrophysicist at the University of Cambridge, who called it a 'hycean' world – a rocky planet with a hydrogen-rich atmosphere and oceans of water.
Then, in 2023, the James Webb telescope detected carbon dioxide and methane in its atmosphere, as well as a shortage of ammonia – a 'very profound' finding because it indicates there's a water ocean underneath a hydrogen-rich atmosphere.
Earlier observations of K2-18b identified methane and carbon dioxide in its atmosphere. This was the first time that carbon-based molecules were discovered in the atmosphere of an exoplanet in the habitable zone (a planet outside our solar system that's at just the right distance from its star for life to realistically proliferate)
On Earth, DMS and DMDS are only produced by life, primarily microbial life such as marine phytoplankton – suggesting a similar form of life on the distant planet.
In fact, scientists have been unable to think of any natural geological or chemical process that could create DMS without living organisms.
What's more, concentrations of DMS and DMDS in K2-18b’s atmosphere are estimated to be thousands of times stronger – more than 10 parts per million by volume compared with one part per billion on Earth – conjuring a scenario of an ocean world teeming with life.
However, the team 'remain cautious' and want to obtain more data before officially announcing that life has been found on another world.
The observations have reached the ‘three-sigma’ level of statistical significance – meaning there is a 0.3 per cent probability that they occurred by chance.
To reach the accepted classification for scientific discovery, the observations would have to cross the five-sigma threshold, meaning there would be below a 0.00006 per cent probability they occurred by chance.
Between 16 and 24 hours of follow-up observation time with JWST may help them reach the all-important five-sigma significance.
It’s one of the most profound questions in science – did life ever exist on Mars?
Now, experts have unearthed evidence that the Red Planet was once habitable.
Scientists have found carbon residue in Martian rocks, indicating that an ancient carbon cycle existed.
And it means the Red Planet was likely once warm enough to sustain life.
Researchers have long believed that, billions of years ago, Mars had a thick, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere with liquid water on its surface.
This carbon dioxide and water should have reacted with rocks to create carbonate minerals.
However, rover missions and analysis from satellites so far haven’t detected the amounts of carbonate on the planet’s surface predicted by this theory.
But that’s all just changed, thanks to data collected by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover.
The NASA Curiosity rover (pictured) found large deposits of a carbon-rich mineral on Mars. Here, it can be seen exploring the Red Planet's surface
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover sees its tracks receding into the distance at the 'Ubajara' site. This site is where the rover made the discovery of siderite, a mineral that may help explain the fate of the planet’s thicker ancient atmosphere
Information recovered from three drill sites reveals the presence of siderite, an iron carbonate mineral.
It was picked up within the sulfate-rich rocky layers of Mount Sharp in Mars’ Gale Crater.
‘The discovery of abundant siderite in Gale Crater represents both a surprising and important breakthrough in our understanding of the geologic and atmospheric evolution of Mars,’ said Benjamin Tutolo, associate professor at the University of Calgary and lead author of the paper.
To study the Red Planet’s chemical and mineral makeup, Curiosity drills three to four centimetres down into the subsurface then drops the powdered rock samples into its CheMin instrument, which uses X-ray diffraction to analyse rocks and soil.
‘Drilling through the layered Martian surface is like going through a history book,’ said Thomas Bristow, research scientist at NASA Ames and coauthor of the paper.
‘Just a few centimetres down gives us a good idea of the minerals that formed at or close to the surface around 3.5 billion years ago.’
The discovery of carbonate suggests that the atmosphere contained enough carbon dioxide to support liquid water existing on the planet’s surface.
Carbon is vital for life on Earth because it's the fundamental building block of all living organisms, forming the basis of their molecules, including DNA, proteins, and carbohydrates.
NASA's Curiosity rover has collected 42 powderised rock samples with the drill on the end of its robotic arm
Mars is called the Red Planet primarily due to the presence of iron oxide, or rust, on its surface. Experts say the new findings suggest it was likely once warm enough to sustain life
It also regulates the planet's temperature.
As the atmosphere thinned – which is thought to have happened around 4 billion years ago - the carbon dioxide transformed into rock form.
‘The abundance of highly soluble salts in these rocks and similar deposits mapped over much of Mars has been used as evidence of the ‘great drying’ of Mars during its dramatic shift from a warm and wet early Mars to its current, cold and dry state,’ Dr Tutolo added.
‘It tells us that the planet was habitable and that the models for habitability are correct.
‘The broader implications are the planet was habitable up until this time, but then, as the CO2 that had been warming the planet started to precipitate as siderite, it likely impacted Mars’ ability to stay warm.’
He said it’s clear that small changes in atmospheric CO2 can lead to huge changes in the ability of the planet to harbour life.
‘The most remarkable thing about Earth is that it’s habitable and it has been for at least four billion years,’ he added.
‘Something happened to Mars that didn’t happen to Earth.’
NASA’s Curiosity rover landed on Mars on August 5, 2012, and has travelled more than 20 miles (34 kilometres) on the Martian surface.
The findings were published in the journal Science.
The Mars Curiosity rover was initially launched from Cape Canaveral, an American Air Force station in Florida on November 26, 2011.
After embarking on a 350 million mile (560 million km) journey, the £1.8 billion ($2.5 billion) research vehicle touched down only 1.5 miles (2.4 km) away from the earmarked landing spot.
After a successful landing on August 5th, 2012, the rover has travelled about 11 miles (18 km).
It launched on the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft and the rover constituted 23 per cent of the mass of the total mission.
With 80 kg (180 lb) of scientific instruments on board, the rover weighs a total of 899 kg (1,982 lb) and is powered by a plutonium fuel source.
The rover is 2.9 metres (9.5 ft) long by 2.7 metres (8.9 ft) wide by 2.2 metres (7.2 ft) in height.
The Mars curiosity rover was initially intended to be a two-year mission to gather information to help answer if the planet could support life, has liquid water, study the climate and the geology of Mars an has since been active for more than 3,700 sols
The rover was initially intended to be a two-year mission to gather information to help answer if the planet could support life, has liquid water, study the climate and the geology of Mars.
Due to its success, the mission has been extended indefinitely and has now been active for over 3,700 sols.
The rover has several scientific instruments on board, including the mastcam which consists of two cameras and can take high-resolution images and videos in real colour.
So far on the journey of the car-sized robot it has encountered an ancient streambed where liquid water used to flow, not long after it also discovered that billions of years ago, a nearby area known as Yellowknife Bay was part of a lake that could have supported microbial life.
The Trump Administration quietly revealed it has futuristic technologies that literally bend timeduring a speech on 'the golden age of American innovation.'
The director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Michael Kratsios, declared that the US currently has the ability to 'manipulate time and space' and 'leave distance annihilated.'
Kratsios made the bold statement on Monday during the Endless Frontiers Retreat, a scientific conference in Texas focused on promoting US technological innovations to maintain global competitiveness.
The rest of the director's speech touched on American breakthroughs of the past and undoing Biden-era policies that the Trump Administration claims stifled innovation - adding that the regulatory process on new tech has been a burden since the 1970s.
Kratsios actually referenced this again at the end of his speech, saying that Americans will soon have the choice to 'craft new technologies and give themselves to scientific discoveries that will bend time and space.'
Kratsios did not clarify his points, but they may have been a hyperbolic reference to recent breakthroughs in AI and quantum computing.
Currently, there is no device publicly known that can literally 'manipulate time and space' or make distance irrelevant.
President Donald Trump recently lauded the capabilities of the new 6th generation F-47 fighter jet on March 21. Trump also made reference to a mysterious secret weapon on April 9
President Donald Trump has not been shy about its focus on Earth-shattering innovations, especially when it comes to space and technology.
During his first term in 2019, President Trump created a new branch of the military, the US Space Force, with the mission 'to secure our nation's interests in, from, and to space.'
The White House also has a very public relationship with Elon Musk, whose commercial spaceflight company SpaceX has become a key player in NASA's ongoing missions and has its sights set on delivering astronauts to Mars within the next five years.
However, the comments that the US already has the ability to manipulate time and space stoked the flames of government conspiracy theorists online.
'Did he just say the quiet bit out loud?' one person on X asked.
'Is this the US secret weapon Trump was talking about?' another person asked, referencing a cryptic statement by President Trump on April 9.
'We have a weapon that no one has a clue what it is. And this is the most powerful weapon in the world, which is more powerful than anyone even close,' Trump claimed.
DailyMail.com has reached out to the White House for comment.
Michael Kratsios stoked wild speculation online after he said that the US currently has the ability to 'manipulate time and space' and 'leave distance annihilated'
Kratsios added that Americans are still seeking to explore 'endless frontiers' and that the country will soon have the technological inventions on hand to reach them.
'Our technologies, and what we do with them, will be the tools with which we will make the destiny of our country manifest in this century,' Kratsios said.
The director noted, however, that the US would first need to safeguard US intellectual property from nations like China and also keep American companies from exporting these innovations overseas.
The speech by Trump's science policy director is just the latest in a growing pile of 'evidence' some say may prove there's more going on in Washington and in the US military than the public knows about.
Recently, scientists told DailyMail.com that time travel is possible - and people have already done it.
In 1915, Albert Einstein presented his theory of general relativity to the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin and proved that time travel is possible.
As bizarre as this situation sounds, Einstein's theories show that this type of time travel is not only possible but extremely common.
Dr Alasdair Richmond, a philosopher and time travel expert from the University of Edinburgh, told DailyMail.com: 'Einstein teaches us that how fast time passes in your surroundings varies with your velocity.'
Essentially, this means the faster you travel, the slower you experience time.
So, if you're on a plane or train, you will be experiencing time slower than anyone standing still and experiments have shown this is true.
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station travel around the Earth at speeds close to 17,500 mph, fast enough to experience slight time travel.
If Kratsios was referring to some sort of faster-than-light travel (also known as warp speed), well, scientists have recently proven that this was possible too.
According to NASA, time travel involves moving through time faster than one second per second. In Interstellar (pictured) this is done by getting close to a black hole but, in reality, the same can be achieved just by getting on a plane
A 2024 study published in the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity, suggested that real-life warp drive is not just a far-fetched concept of science-fiction after all.
Researchers from the University of Alabama and the Applied Physics Laboratory believe warp speed could be possible by bending the rules of physics using Einstein's theory of general relativity.
They proposed creating a 'warp bubble' around a spaceship using a shell of regular matter, like dense particles or dark matter, to compress spacetime in front of the ship and expand it behind.
This bubble would let the ship travel faster than light without breaking the laws of physics, and crucially, it doesn't need exotic 'negative energy' that past theories required.
The American space agency shared the shocking image of a massive openingin the Martian landscape on Sunday for its Astronomy Picture of the Day.
Rather than leave people with a mystery, NASA speculated that the giant hole appears to lead to a mysterious 'lower level' that may support life.
'Holes such as this are of particular interest because they might be portals to lower levels that extend into expansive underground caves,' NASA researchers said.
'If so, these naturally occurring tunnels are relatively protected from the harsh surface of Mars, making them relatively good candidates to contain Martian life,' they added.
It's quite a statement by NASA, which has consistently tried to manage the public's expectations of finding extraterrestrial life both on other planets and here on Earth.
So far, the focus has been on microbial life that may be hiding in frozen oceans on Earth's neighboring planets and moons.
NASA released an image of a massive hole in the surface of Mars on April 13 as part of the agency's Astronomy Picture of the Day series
NASA pointed out that this image, originally taken in 2017 by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, actually shows several holes in the planet's surface.
'There are numerous holes pictured in this Swiss cheese-like landscape, with all-but-one of them showing a dusty, dark, Martian terrain beneath evaporating, light, carbon dioxide ice,' the researchers wrote.
That most noticeable ditch is the perfectly rounded hole in the upper-right portion of the satellite photo - a giant cavity spanning roughly 328 feet.
Making the discovery even more mysterious is the fact that this hole also has a circular crater surrounding it.
As for what caused it, the NASA team speculated that it may have been created by a meteor impact, but the bigger question now is what's sitting at the other end of this pit.
'These pits are therefore also prime targets for possible future spacecraft, robots, and even human interplanetary explorers,' NASA added.
Since Mars now lacks a strong magnetic field and thick atmosphere, its surface is constantly bombarded by high levels of cosmic and solar radiation, which can be deadly to life as we know it.
Mars is believed to have several similar holes that may be craters from meteor impacts, potentially leading a vast system of underground caves and lava tubes
The USGS Astrogeology Science Center has mapped hundreds of possible sites that experts believe could be entry points to subterranean caves on Mars
However, life may have been able to survive below the soil thanks to the natural shielding of these caves and tubes - meaning astronauts might be able to find evidence or even fossils of living organisms here.
America's experts on underground mysteries and seismic activity - the US Geological Survey (USGS) - were even brought in to find these caves.
In 2019, the USGS Astrogeology Science Center revealed a stunning map detailing over 1,000 candidates that their experts believe could be cave entrances scattered throughout the surface of Mars.
Unfortunately, USGS noted that their review used data coming in from probes flying 250 miles above the Martian surface.
Glen Cushing, a space scientist from the USGS Astrogeology Science Center, said: 'It is impossible to see how far any of them extend beneath the surface.'
'Not knowing which instances are caves and which are merely alcoves with modest lateral extent, we are careful to express that these are 'candidate' cave entrances,' he added in the 2019 release.
Other space missions, including the European Space Agency's Mars Express, have also found evidence of ancient lava tubes beneath the planet's dormant volcanoes.
However, this newly released photo makes it undeniably clear that there's at least one hole on Mars which leads to an unknown subterranean layer.
The soonest human astronauts may be able to see this enormous hole for themselves could be in 2028.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk recently appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, where he rapidly accelerated the timeline for people arriving on the Red Planet.
Musk said that SpaceX's 'default plan' was to 'launch several Starships to Mars at the end of next year.'
These are the same type of space vehicles SpaceX has been testing, with some of the recent tests ending in a fiery explosion.
These missions would also have no crews and would see if the vehicles could successfully land on the Red Planet. Musk added that he's hoping his company will launch a total of five of these remote-controlled starships to Mars in 2026.
Instead, the researchers believe that the ingredients for the water in our oceans and rivers were actually part of Earth from the very beginning.
In their study, the team analysed a rare asteroid made of a material very similar to the rocky debris which came together to make Earth.
Using a powerful beam of X-rays, the scientists found that these materials were 'incredibly rich' in hydrogen, which forms water when combined with oxygen.
Co-author Tom Barrett, a PhD student at the University of Oxford, told MailOnline: 'The big conclusion of this study is that hydrogen, and by extension the ingredients for water, were incorporated into Earth by its primary building blocks, making it an inevitable consequence of our planet’s formation.
'This may mean that water on the surface of planets is not as unlikely as previously thought.'
Scientists say they have finally solved the puzzle of where Earth's water came from, and they say it wasn't delivered by asteroids
(stock image)
To explain how life was able to develop on Earth, and whether it could exist on other planets, scientists first need to figure out how liquid water came to exist.
Many believed that the rocks which came together to make the Earth 4.55 billion years ago were too poor in hydrogen to explain all the water we see on the planet today.
Since we can't see what the early Earth was like directly, the best way to test this theory is to look for meteorites that have been drifting through space since the planet formed.
In their new study, published in the journal Icarus, researchers studied a meteorite dubbed LAR 12252 which had been found in Antarctica.
LAR 12252 is a rare type of meteorite called an 'enstatite chondrite' which has a composition similar to that of the early Earth.
A French research team had previously shown that this rock contained hydrogen hidden inside tiny spherical structures called chondrules.
The researchers analysed a rare meteorite found in Antarctica (pictured) which has the same composition as the early Earth. Their study revealed that this space rock was much richer in hydrogen, one of the ingredients of water, than expected
Did water arrive on Earth with asteroids?
Current evidence suggests that at least some of Earth's water was brought to the planet by asteroid impacts.
However, this only accounts for some of the water on the surface.
The majority of Earth's water is below the surface and isn't accounted for by known asteroid impacts.
Researchers now think that this water might have formed from hydrogen which was inside the planet's building blocks.
This means that while some water did come from asteroids, most of Earth's water was created as a natural consequence of the planet's formation.
But the way in which their study was conducted meant it wasn't clear whether this hydrogen was an original 'intrinsic' part of the rock or whether it was contamination from Earth.
To learn more Dr Barrett and his co-authors used a technique called X-Ray Absorption Near Edge Structure spectroscopy.
This works by shining a very powerful X-ray beam onto the material and looking at each atom absorbs energy to work out what element it is and what kind of chemical it is part of.
When the researchers shone the X-ray on the edges of the chondrules, where water had been found before, they found that these areas were extremely rich in a chemical called hydrogen sulphide.
Since this rock is so similar to the composition of the Earth when it formed, this suggests that the planet may have already had enough hydrogen for liquid water to form.
Dr Bryson says: 'Our work suggests that water did not need to be delivered from asteroids.
'The material that created Earth likely contained enough hydrogen, in the form of hydrogen sulphide, to explain the entire water budget of Earth.'
Additionally, the location of the hydrogen-rich chemicals in the meteorite is a strong sign that their findings are accurate.
Using a powerful beam of X-rays the researchers found that some parts of the rock were exceptionally rich in hydrogen sulphide. This means that the early Earth might have had all the hydrogen it needed right from the start
Since this type of meteorite is such a good match for the building blocks of Earth, the researchers believe that there was no need for asteroids to deliver water to the planet since there was already enough hydrogen here
While the material around the spherical chondrules was rich in hydrogen sulphide, parts of the meteorite which had signs of contamination such as cracks or rust had none.
This tells the researchers that the hydrogen in the meteorite must have been part of its structure before it arrived on Earth.
Co-author Dr James Bryson, associate professor of mineralogy at the University of Oxford, told MailOnline: 'We are pretty confident that the meteorites we have measured are a good repression of Earth's building blocks.
This is because the meteorite contains the same ratio of stable isotopes, types of elements, as found near the interior of Earth.
This doesn't mean that none of Earth's water came from asteroid impacts, since we have good evidence that some water on the planet's surface was delivered in this way.
However, this shows that some of the water on the surface and most of the water in the interior, which is the majority on the planet, was there from the beginning.
Dr Bryson says: 'Our findings just show that there was enough hydrogen in Earth from its inception to form abundant water - we don't know when or how that happened, but we hope our research will inspire those questions to be examined.'
MailOnline has used AI to take scientists' best predictions and imagine what life might be like on K2-18b.
The most likely scenario is that K2-18b's oceans are filled with something like phytoplankton - microscopic organisms that feed on the energy from the nearby star.
However, where there are plankton there is also the possibility of more complex lifeforms evolving to feed on this abundant food supply.
That could mean K2-18b is teaming with strange lifeforms, from filter-feeding shrimp to alien flying fish.
Scientists say life on the planet K2-18b will likely be microscopic phytoplankton
(AI Impression)
Researchers found traces of chemicals produced by life in the atmosphere of K2-18b (artist's impression), a planet 124 light-years from Earth. This planet is most likely a 'Hycean' world covered by oceans
Plankton
K2-18b is an exoplanet located around 124 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Leo.
It is 2.6 times larger and 8.6 times as massive than Earth, and experts believe it is likely covered in an ocean – making it what they call a 'Hycean world'.
From observations, scientists know that K2-18b is orbiting a red dwarf star in an area known as the 'habitable zone' in which liquid water can exist.
As the planet passes in front of its star, scientists can record how different chemicals in the atmosphere absorb the light.
This revealed the chemical fingerprints of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and dimethyl disulfide (DMDS), which are only made on Earth by living creatures.
Dr Arik Kershenbaum, a zoologist from the University of Cambridge says: 'It's a complex chemical that decays really quickly. So, if you see it there, then something must be making it.'
Although scientists can't be 100 per cent certain that K2-18b is a Hycean world, if it is, then the oceans would be the most likely place for life to develop.
On Earth, DMS and DMDS are only produced by living organisms - mostly microbial life such as marine phytoplankton (like the ones pictured)
K2-18b is thought to be a 'Hycean' world (depicted) - a class of exoplanet possessing key ingredients for alien species because of their hydrogen-rich atmospheres and oceans of water. Life most likely exists near the surface of the water, feeding on the energy from the star
However, Dr Arik Kershenbaum, a zoologist from the University of Cambridge and author of The Zoologists Guide to the Galaxy, says that life on K2-18b would be quite different to life on Earth today.
'Even if there is an ocean on this planet it's going to look more like what Earth looked like three or four billion years ago when life first evolved,' he said.
'So, one thing we can say pretty confidently is that the vast majority of planets that have any sort of life on them are going to have simple life on them.'
That means the most likely form of life will be microscopic organisms such as phytoplankton.
On Earth, these creatures sit near the surface of the water and convert sunlight into energy by photosynthesis and, importantly, also create DMS and DMDS.
So, if these chemicals do really have a biological source, phytoplankton in K2-18b's oceans are the most likely contender.
Filter feeders
However, just because life is simple on K2-18b, this doesn't mean that it will all be small.
More complex life may have evolved to feed on the microorganisms in the water, these could resemble Earth creatures called choanoflagellates which suck water through their funnel-like bodies (AI impression)
Dr Kershenbaum says: 'By simple I just mean simple interactions and a very simple ecosystem.
'So, you might have organisms that capture light from the star like plants do on our planet and then, as they die and sink down in the water there might be some organisms that eat the dead creatures.
'That's probably what life was like on Earth around two billion years ago.'
Dr Kershenbaum says that the restrictions of physics and the limits on how creatures can move themselves mean that life on K2-18b would share some similarities with life on Earth.
So, if more complex life has evolved it could resemble some of the early filter feeders in Earth's history.
On Earth, one of the very first things to start eating microorganisms was a type of single-celled organism called choanoflagellates, the earliest living ancestor of all animals on Earth.
These simple creatures looked like tiny badminton shuttlecocks which used microscopic hairs to suck bacteria through a funnel and consume them.
Scientists believe that something very much like this was probably the closest relative of all animal life on Earth so simple creatures on K2-18b might look similar.
Animals on K2-18b could look like some of Earth's first filter-feeding organisms. These were large, shrimp-like creatures which gathered particles in the water using their feather-like appendages (AI impression)
Although complex animals only evolved more recently in Earth's evolutionary history, the fossil record might offer some hints to what alien life could look like.
Scientists believe the first filter-feeding animal in Earth's history was a large shrimp-like creature called Tamisiocaris borealis which lived 540 million years ago.
This animal used long, feather-like structures around its head to gather tiny particles from the water.
Although it isn't likely, if there is more complex life on K2-18b it might have evolved in a similar way.
This makes it less likely that K2-18b will have forms of life with complex relationships like predation and evasion behaviours.
However, if it does happen to have a truly complex life, scientists have some ideas of what it could look like.
Scientists have said that flying fish or even birds might develop on water worlds to avoid predators (AI impression)
Since the light from the red dwarf star is so dim, any creatures in K2-18bs oceans would have evolved very large eyes (AI impression)
Since K2-18b orbits a red dwarf star, the light reaching the planet will be dim which places some constraints on how life could develop.
Astronomer Michael Garrett, a professor at Manchester University, previously told MailOnline: 'I think the way complex life might appear will depend a lot on the environment within which it evolves.
'If your star is a red giant, you might find life with eyes that are much more sensitive and larger than ours.'
Professor Garrett also said that if the world had a low-density atmosphere, it may have 'life forms with wings of enormous scale'.
Likewise, in 2013, NASA researchers discovered two water worlds, called Kepler-62e and Kpler-62f, which were promising candidates in the search for life.
Speaking to Space.com at the time, lead researcher Bill Borucki, of NASA's Ames Research Center, said that these planets could be home to fish or even birds.
Mr Borucki said: 'At least in our ocean, we have flying fish. They 'fly' to get away from predators. So we might find that they have evolved — birds — on this ocean planet.'
Since K2-18b is a water world just like Kepler-62e and 62f, its oceans could also be home to strange alien flying fish or even sea birds.
The Drake Equation is a seven-variable way of finding the chance of active civilizations existing beyond Earth.
It takes into account factors like the rate of star formation, the amount of stars that could form planetary systems, the number potentially habitable planets in those systems.
The equation includes recent data from Nasa's Kepler satellite on the number of exoplanets that could harbor life.
Researchers also adapted the equation from being about the number of civilizations that exist now, to being about the probability of civilization being the only one that has ever existed.
Researchers found the odds of an advanced civilization developing need to be less than one in 10 billion trillion for humans to be the only intelligent life in the universe.
Unless the odds of advanced life evolving on a habitable planet are astonishingly low, then humankind is not the only advanced civilization to have lived.
But Kepler data places those odds much higher, which means technologically advanced aliens are likely to have existed at some point.
Astronomers Detect Signs of Life On Planet Just 120-Light-Years Distant
The search for life on alien worlds has produced by far its most exciting discovery, in the form of a planet just 124 light years from earth that shows all the signs of hosting life. Translating galactic terms into an earth-centered perspective, this planet is literally right across the street from us, and the data that has been collected from there suggests it is likely “teeming with life,” at least some of which could be highly intelligent. It seems that much of the surface of this distant planet is covered with ocean, as is earth, which suggests the possibility of parallel stories of evolution.
For now, this unique exoplanet has been given the decidedly unromantic name of K2-18b—which is probably not what its inhabitants call it (assuming they exist, of course).
Using data collected by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the team of astronomers responsible for this discovery, led by researchers from the University of Cambridge, have identified massive quantities of chemicals only produced by living organisms on Earth in the atmosphere of K2 – 18b. Specifically, they have identified the chemical fingerprints of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and dimethyl disulfide (DMDS), molecules that are primarily produced by microbial life like marine phytoplankton.
The data obtained from K2 – 18b is the 'strongest hint yet' of biological activity outside our solar system, with experts hailing this discovery as a 'huge, transformational moment'. And the fact that this planet is just 124 light years away, in the Zodiac constellation of Leo, only adds to the thrill of this unprecedented discovery.
The Marvels of Our Hycean Neigbor Are Revealed
K2-18b is what scientists call a “Hycean world,” meaning it likely harbors a vast ocean and has a hydrogen-rich atmosphere. It's about 2.6 times larger than Earth and has 8.6 times our planet’s mass. Despite being much closer to its host star—resulting in a year that lasts just 33 Earth days—the planet maintains a temperature range that could allow for liquid water to exist on its surface.
Artist’s conception of K2-18b, its star, and another smaller planet from its solar system, rendered with the assistance of data obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Previous studies had already picked up the presence of methane and carbon dioxide in the planet’s atmosphere, a groundbreaking find at the time. But now, with the discovery of DMS and DMDS, scientists are even more confident that something extraordinary may be unfolding on K2-18b.
Unlike on Earth, where DMS and DMDS levels are typically less than one part per billion, the concentrations on K2-18b are estimated to exceed 10 parts per million—thousands of times higher. This suggests a planet that is heavily populated by at least microbial lifeforms, and almost assuredly lifeforms that are far more advanced than that (if one assumes that evolution would follow similar paths on habitable planets like earth and K2-18b).
Professor Nikku Madhusudhan, who led the research at Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy, explained the significance of these findings.
“Earlier theoretical work had predicted that high levels of sulfur-based gases like DMS and DMDS are possible on Hycean worlds,” he told Space.com. “And now we’ve observed it, in line with what was predicted. Given everything we know about this planet, a Hycean world with an ocean that is teeming with life is the scenario that best fits the data we have.”
Although the results are promising, Professor Madhusudhan emphasized caution. There’s still a possibility that unknown chemical processes not related to life might be responsible for the signals. More data is needed before scientists can declare the presence of alien life with 100-percent certainty.
The team is currently planning additional experiments to determine if non-biological mechanisms could generate these compounds in the quantities observed. JWST will also continue to collect more data to rule out statistical anomalies (although they believe this is highly unlikely).
“This could be the tipping point,” Madhusudhan noted. “Decades from now, we may look back at this point in time and recognize it was when the living universe came within reach.”
Illustration of the James Webb Space Telescope, as it looks in space.
A Miracle Find Using the Most Advanced Tools of Scientific Detection
To analyze the chemical composition of a far-off planet’s atmosphere, astronomers study the light emitted from the planet’s star during a transit, or when the planet passes in front of its star from our viewpoint. During this alignment, a portion of starlight filters through the planet’s atmosphere, imprinting unique spectral signatures of its gases, which can then be analyzed back on Earth.
Last year, JWST first picked up subtle anomalies in the atmosphere of K2-18b, in addition to the already-confirmed presence of methane and carbon dioxide. The team decided to take a closer look using different instruments on the telescope.
Initially, they used JWST’s NIRISS (Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph) and NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph), both of which analyze wavelengths between 0.8 and 5 microns. These early hints of DMS led to further investigation using JWST’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), which covers a different range—6 to 12 microns. The separate instrument provided independent confirmation of the earlier findings.
“This is an independent line of evidence,” said Madhusudhan. “We used a different instrument and a different wavelength range of light. The signal came through strong and clear.”
Måns Holmberg, a co-author from the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, said, “It was an incredible realization seeing the results emerge and remain consistent throughout the extensive independent analyses and robustness tests.”
Though DMS and DMDS are similar and sometimes hard to distinguish due to overlapping spectral features, both are considered potential biosignatures. Additional observations will help scientists more clearly identify which compound is present, and in what quantities.
Statistically, the current observations have reached the "three-sigma" level, meaning there's just a 0.3% chance the data is a fluke. However, to meet the gold standard of scientific discovery—"five-sigma" significance—the probability must fall below 0.00006%. The researchers believe that 16 to 24 more hours of observing time with JWST could get them to this threshold.
Illustration of the organic molecules found on Mars by NASA’s rover Curiosity, which is also pictured (on the Martian surface).
Interestingly, this announcement comes on the heels of another major scientific revelation related to the ongoing quest to find signs off-planet signs of lie. Just last month, researchers reported finding massive organic molecules on Mars—carbon chains with up to 12 atoms—in rock samples dating back billions of years. These molecules may have originated from fatty acids, which on Earth are made by living organisms. What exactly this means with respect to Mars’ past is uncertain, but the discovery is definitely consistent that the planet hosted life of some kind at some point in the distant past.
All in all, these are exciting times for scientists and other creative and imaginative people searching for proof that we are not alone in the universe.
Top image: Artist’s conception of a big, blue K2-18b orbiting its red dwarf star.
A New Concept for an Astrobiology Mission to Enceladus
A New Concept for an Astrobiology Mission to Enceladus
By Matthew Williams
This mosaic of Saturn's moon Enceladus was created with images captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft on Oct. 9, 2008, after the spacecraft came within about 16 miles (25 kilometers) of the surface of Enceladus. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
This year's Lunar Planetary Science Conference(2025 LPSC) saw some truly astounding presentations and proposals. These covered a wide range of science and exploration missions that address the priorities of NASA, other space agencies, and affiliated institutes. A major area of interest was future astrobiology missions that will search for evidence of biological processes (biosignatures) on extraterrestrial bodies. This included Mars, where most of our astrobiology efforts are focused, and locations in the outer Solar System.
Consider Enceladus, Saturn's icy moon known for the plume activity in its southern polar region. Based on planetary modeling, scientists theorize that these plumes are caused by tidal flexing in the moon's interior. This causes Enceladus' interior ocean to breach the surface (cryovolcanism) and hurl material into space. To confirm the presence of organics and (potentially) life, a team from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) proposes an Enceladus Orbitlander to conduct in-situ measurements of Enceladus' plumes.
The study was led by Alfred Nash, a JPL researcher, the winner of the JPL Principal Designation Award (2015) for Project Systems Engineering & Formulation, and the Lead Engineer of Team X, the JPL Advanced Design Team responsible for rapidly generating innovative space mission concepts. He was joined by his Team X JPL colleagues at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
According to their study, their mission proposal is consistent with the Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023-2032 ("Origins, Worlds, and Life") released in 2022. In this survey, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) committee established a Flagship mission to Enceladus (consisting of an orbiter and lander element) as the second-highest priority for missions developed before 2032:
"Study of plume material allows direct study of the ocean’s habitability, addressing a fundamental question: Is there life beyond Earth and if not, why not? Orbilander will analyze fresh plume material from orbit and during a 2-year landed mission. Its main science objectives are (1) to search for evidence of life; and (2) to obtain geochemical and geophysical context for life detection experiments."
Ever since the Cassini-Huygens mission studied Saturn and its largest moons (2004-2017), scientists have been eager to get a better look at Enceladus. Like Jupiter's moon, Europa, and Saturn's largest moon, Titan, Enceladus is considered one of the most promising places to look for extraterrestrial life in the Solar System. Because of the distance between Earth and Saturn, mission concepts typically call for Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) as a power source.
These nuclear batteries powered astrobiology missions like the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers and the Galileo and New Horizons spacecraft. At least three RTGs powered the Cassini orbiter, which was deemed necessary because solar panels are ineffective this far from the Sun. However, as Nash and his team explain, NASA has indicated that the inventory of RTGs is limited due to their cost and complexity, particularly where their plutonium-238 fuel is concerned.
Mission Architecture
The mission architecture that resulted consisted of a two-stage spacecraft comprised of a Lander and a Saturn Orbit Insertion (SOI) stage. This mission would launch in November 2038 using an expendable version of the Falcon Heavy rocket and a Star 48 solid rocket motor. This mission would spend the next 7.5 years travelling to Saturn, followed by a one-year Saturn approach and orbital transfer to Enceladus. This would be followed by half a year of fast flybys of Enceladus.
They estimate that the Orbitlander could sample plume material twelve times during this phase while flying 50 km (31 mi) from the surface at velocities of 5-9 km/s (3-5.5 mi/s). This would be followed by a 2.6-year Saturn Tour and Enceladus Orbit Insertion (EOI) phase, where the spacecraft would perform gravity assists to lower its altitude and speed to 30 km (18.5 mi) and 500-900 m/s (0.3-0.5 mi/s). The mission will spend another 3.5 months and sample plume material eight more times.
The mission will then drop its altitude to 50 km (31 mi) and spend a year scouting for a landing site. The DDL phase will take place, followed by two years of surface operations, during which the lander will collect and analyze samples from the moon's icy crust, including water and plume material that has refrozen on the surface. The team also presents an alternative New Frontiers (NF) Program mission, which is also consistent with recommendations put forth in the 2023 Decadal Survey:
"Should budgetary constraints not permit initiation of Orbilander, the committee includes the Enceladus Multiple Flyby (EMF) mission theme in NF. EMF provides an alternative pathway for progress this decade on the crucial question of ocean world habitability, albeit with greatly reduced sample volume, higher velocity of sample acquisition and associated degradation, and a smaller instrument component to support life-detection."
Design
The team recommends a lower Size, Weight, Power, and Cost (SWaP-C) concept for their proposed Enceladus Orbitlander. Team X relied on standard tools and validated Institutional Cost Models (ICM) to evaluate their mission concept and incorporated technologies that could be developed within the next five years. These technologies were evaluated for their ability to minimize the spacecraft's dry mass and enable the mission to accomplish its science objectives using only one next-generation RTG power system.
They forgo reaction wheels for attitude control and opt for cold gas bipropellant thrusters instead. A High-Performance Space Computer (HPSC) would handle command and data systems. An Intelligent Landing System Lite was chosen for Deorbit, Descent, and Landing (DDL). The power subsystem comprises a Distributed Power Architecture (DPA) and a Peak Power Tracker (PPT), which reduce the overall cable mass and ensure the RTG consistently runs at 30 volts, increasing the power available from the RTG.
These elements were all selected because they reduce the spacecraft's total mass and power needs by half compared to instruments used today. The propulsion system leverages improvements made in Low-Temperature Cold Gas Systems to reduce the heater power requirements, while a series of composite overwrap tanks were chosen for their reduced mass. The Orbitlander will rely on a 10° half-angle X-band Medium Gain Antenna (MGA) and a Patch Array High-Gain Antenna (HGA) for communications.
Advanced Variable Radioisotope Heater Units (RHUs) will handle the spacecraft's thermal systems, reducing the number of RHUs needed to heat the spacecraft's thrusters and instruments. As the team concludes, these design choices result in a system with a launch mass 846 kg (1865 lbs) lighter than the Technical Risk and Cost Evaluation (TRACE) estimate from the Decadal Survey, and $900 million cheaper.
Conclusions
Overall, the team's "power reduction first" design offers a cost-effective, lower-mass, and simplified concept for an astrobiology mission to Enceladus in the coming decades. By incorporating advanced and evolving technologies, they claim that this could result in an architecture capable of delivering a greater payload to the surface, providing enhanced science opportunities:
"This approach not only reduces launch vehicle requirements and overall mission cost but also ensures technical feasibility within the timeline constraints of the decade. These results underscore the viability of a lower SWaP-C approach as a pathway for accelerated progress this decade on the crucial question of ocean world habitability, providing an important step forward in advancing the scientific priorities outlined in the Decadal Survey."
Signature of alien life 'found' 120 light years from Earth: Scientists detect signs of tell-tale biosignature of microbial life on ocean-covered planet that could be 'teeming with life'
That's the most likely explanation for a new discovery made by scientists, who say they have detected the most promising signs yet of life outside our solar system.
Using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the astronomers, led by the University of Cambridge, have identified huge quantities of chemicals only made by living organisms on Earth.
They have picked up the chemical fingerprints of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) – molecules that are primarily produced by microbial life such as marine phytoplankton.
They have been detected in the atmosphere of exoplanet K2-18b, which is located around 124 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Leo.
It is the 'strongest hint yet' of biological activity outside our solar system, with experts hailing the 'huge, transformational moment'.
The planet is orbiting a red dwarf star in what is known as the 'habitable zone' – considered the most promising location to find life-supporting planets.
K2-18b is 2.6 times larger and 8.6 times as massive than Earth, and experts believe it is likely covered in an ocean – making it what they call a 'Hycean world'.
An illustration of a Hycean world, which experts believe K2-18b could be, orbiting its red dwarf star
On Earth, DMS and DMDS are only produced by living organisms - mostly microbial life such as marine phytoplankton (like the ones pictured)
The planet's temperature is similar to Earth's but it is orbiting so close to its star that a year there lasts just 33 days.
Earlier observations identified methane and carbon dioxide in its atmosphere – the first time that carbon-based molecules had been discovered on an exoplanet in the habitable zone.
Now, analysis of new data has unearthed the compounds which – as far as scientists are aware – are only produced by living organisms.
The concentrations of DMS and DMDS in K2-18b's atmosphere are very different than on Earth, where they are generally below one part per billion by volume.
On K2-18b, they are estimated to be thousands of times stronger - over 10 parts per million.
Professor Nikku Madhusudhan, from Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy, led the research.
'Earlier theoretical work had predicted that high levels of sulfur-based gases like DMS and DMDS are possible on Hycean worlds,' he said.
'And now we've observed it, in line with what was predicted.
K2-18b is thought to be a 'Hycean' world (depicted) - a class of exoplanet possessing key ingredients for alien species because of their hydrogen-rich atmospheres and oceans of water
Artist's impression of K2-18b with its potentially vast oceans which could be 'teeming with life'
'Given everything we know about this planet, a Hycean world with an ocean that is teeming with life is the scenario that best fits the data we have.'
He said that while the results are exciting, it's vital to obtain more data before claiming that life has been found on another world.
And while he is cautiously optimistic, there could be previously unknown chemical processes at work on K2-18b that may account for the findings.
Further observations from the JWST are needed to help confirm their results are not due to chance.
His team are also hoping to conduct further experiments to determine whether DMS and DMDS can be produced non-biologically at the level currently detected.
'Decades from now, we may look back at this point in time and recognise it was when the living universe came within reach,' Professor Madhusudhan said.
'This could be the tipping point, where suddenly the fundamental question of whether we're alone in the universe is one we're capable of answering.'
To determine the chemical composition of the atmospheres of faraway planets, astronomers analyse the light from its parent star as the planet transits, or passes in front of the star.
Further observations by the James Webb Space Telescope (pictured) could confirm the presence of DMS in the planet's atmosphere
Planet K2-18b: Key facts
Discovered: 2015
Star:Red Dwarf star K2-18
Constellation:Leo
Mass: 8.6 times that of Earth
Distance away from us: 124 light years
Orbital duration: 33 days
As K2-18b transits, JWST can detect a drop in stellar brightness, and a tiny fraction of starlight passes through the planet's atmosphere before reaching Earth.
The absorption of some of the starlight in the planet's atmosphere leaves imprints in the stellar spectrum that astronomers can piece together to determine the constituent gases of the exoplanet's atmosphere.
Last year, JWST detected weak hints of 'something else happening' on K2-18b alongside the discovery of methane and carbon dioxide.
'We didn't know for sure whether the signal we saw last time was due to DMS, but just the hint of it was exciting enough for us to have another look with JWST using a different instrument,' Professor Madhusudhan explained.
The earlier, tentative, inference of DMS was made using JWST's NIRISS (Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph) and NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) instruments, which together cover the near-infrared (0.8-5 micron) range of wavelengths.
The new, independent observation used JWST's MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) in the mid-infrared (6-12 micron) range.
'This is an independent line of evidence, using a different instrument than we did before and a different wavelength range of light, where there is no overlap with the previous observations,' Professor Madhusudhan said.
'The signal came through strong and clear.'
To determine the chemical composition of the atmospheres of faraway planets, astronomers analyse the light from its parent star as the planet or passes in front of it (pictured is an artist's impression of K2-18b)
Co-author Måns Holmberg, a researcher at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, USA, added: 'It was an incredible realisation seeing the results emerge and remain consistent throughout the extensive independent analyses and robustness tests.'
DMS and DMDS are molecules from the same chemical family, and both are predicted to be biosignatures.
Both molecules have overlapping spectral features in the observed wavelength range, although further observations will help differentiate between the two molecules.
'Our work is the starting point for all the investigations that are now needed to confirm and understand the implications of these exciting findings,' said co-author Savvas Constantinou, also from Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy.
The team say their observations have reached the 'three-sigma' level of statistical significance – meaning there is a 0.3 per cent probability that they occurred by chance.
To reach the accepted classification for scientific discovery, the observations would have to cross the five-sigma threshold, meaning there would be below a 0.00006 per cent probability they occurred by chance.
They said between 16 and 24 hours of follow-up observation time with JWST may help them reach the all-important five-sigma significance.
The discovery was published in the journal The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Last month, scientists announced that organic molecules of 'unprecedented size' had been discovered on Mars, adding further evidence that life may once have existed on the Red Planet.
Experts found long carbon chains, containing up to 12 consecutive atoms, in samples of Martian rock which date back billions of years.
These organic molecules – the longest identified so far – could originate from fatty acids, which are the building blocks of fats and oils and are created on Earth through biological activity.
And scientists said the discovery is of 'high interest' in the search for potential signs of life.
British astronomer Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell was the first person to discover a pulsar in 1967 when she spotted a radio pulsar.
Since then other types of pulsars that emit X-rays and gamma rays have also been spotted.
Pulsars are essentially rotating, highly magnetised neutron stars but when they were first discovered it was believed they could have come from aliens.
'Wow!' radio signal
In 1977, an astronomer looking for alien life in the night sky above Ohio spotted a radio signal so powerful that he excitedly wrote 'Wow!' next to his data.
In 1977, an astronomer looking for alien life in the night sky above Ohio spotted a radio signal so powerful that he excitedly wrote 'Wow!' next to his data
The 72-second blast, spotted by Dr Jerry Ehman through a radio telescope, came from Sagittarius but matched no known celestial object.
Conspiracy theorists have since claimed that the 'Wow! signal', which was 30 times stronger than background radiation, was a message from intelligent extraterrestrials.
Fossilised Martian microbes
In 1996 Nasa and the White House made the explosive announcement that the rock contained traces of Martian bugs.
The meteorite, catalogued as Allen Hills (ALH) 84001, crashed onto the frozen wastes of Antarctica 13,000 years ago and was recovered in 1984.
Photographs were released showing elongated segmented objects that appeared strikingly lifelike.
Photographs were released showing elongated segmented objects that appeared strikingly lifelike (pictured)
However, the excitement did not last long. Other scientists questioned whether the meteorite samples were contaminated.
They also argued that heat generated when the rock was blasted into space may have created mineral structures that could be mistaken for microfossils.
Behaviour of Tabby's Star in 2005
The star, otherwise known as KIC 8462852, is located 1,400 light years away and has baffled astronomers since being discovered in 2015.
It dims at a much faster rate than other stars, which some experts have suggested is a sign of aliens harnessing the energy of a star.
The star, otherwise known as KIC 8462852, is located 1,400 light years away and has baffled astonomers since being discovered in 2015 (artist's impression)
Recent studies have 'eliminated the possibility of an alien megastructure', and instead, suggests that a ring of dust could be causing the strange signals.
Exoplanets in the Goldilocks zone in 2017
In February 2017 astronomers announced they had spotted a star system with planets that could support life just 39 light years away.
Seven Earth-like planets were discovered orbiting nearby dwarf star 'Trappist-1', and all of them could have water at their surface, one of the key components of life.
Three of the planets have such good conditions, that scientists say life may have already evolved on them.
Researchers claim that they will know whether or not there is life on any of the planets within a decade, and said: 'This is just the beginning.'
Wetenschappers vinden ‘meest overtuigende aanwijzing voor buitenaards leven totnogtoe’ – maar blijven zeer sceptisch
Wetenschappers vinden ‘meest overtuigende aanwijzing voor buitenaards leven totnogtoe’ – maar blijven zeer sceptisch
Inleiding
De zoektocht naar buitenaards leven is een van de meest fascinerende en intrigerende wetenschappelijke ondernemingen van onze tijd. Het idee dat wij niet de enige bewuste wezens in het universum zouden zijn, prikkelt de menselijke nieuwsgierigheid en drijft onderzoekers om de mysteries van het heelal te ontrafelen. Recentelijk heeft een opmerkelijke ontdekking geleid tot wat wetenschappers beschouwen als de ‘meest overtuigende aanwijzing voor buitenaards leven tot nu toe’. Echter, ondanks de grote potentie van deze bevinding, blijven velen binnen de wetenschappelijke gemeenschap uiterst sceptisch. In dit artikel wordt een uitgebreide wetenschappelijke analyse gepresenteerd over deze ontdekking, inclusief de context, de bewijsmiddelen, de interpretaties, en de kritische kanttekeningen.
Context en achtergrond
Voordat we ingaan op de specifieke ontdekking, is het belangrijk om de bredere context van de zoektocht naar buitenaards leven te schetsen. Sinds de mid-20e eeuw, met de lancering van de eerste satellieten en de ontwikkeling van radioastronomie, is het wetenschappelijke veld van de astrobiologie ontstaan. Het doel was en is om te begrijpen onder welke omstandigheden leven kan ontstaan en bestaan buiten de aarde.
Een belangrijke mijlpaal in deze zoektocht was de vondst van exoplaneten – planeten buiten ons zonnestelsel – vooral de zogenaamde 'bewoonbare zones' rondom sterren, waar vloeibaar water mogelijk zou kunnen bestaan. Naast de zoektocht naar exoplaneten en de detectie van biosignaturen (chemische sporen van leven), richt het onderzoek zich ook op het bestuderen van objecten binnen ons eigen zonnestelsel, zoals Mars, Europa (een maan van Jupiter), en Enceladus (een maan van Saturnus), die mogelijk ondergrondse oceanen herbergen.
De ontdekking: Wat is de meest overtuigende aanwijzing voor buitenaards leven tot nu toe?
De recente ontdekking die de wetenschappelijke gemeenschap in rep en roer bracht, betreft een reeks anomalieën in de datastromen die afkomstig zijn van een bepaald astronomisch fenomeen. Het gaat om signalen die niet gemakkelijk kunnen worden verklaard door bekende natuurlijke processen en die mogelijk wijzen op technologische activiteit van buitenaardse oorsprong.
"Mysterieuze radiosignalen komen uit een 'onvoorstelbaar' deel van de ruimte, zeggen wetenschappers
De belangrijkste bevindingen omvatten:
Herhaalde, gestructureerde radiogolfsignalen: Wetenschappers hebben herhaaldelijk patronen waargenomen in radiogolfsignalen afkomstig van een verre ster, waarvan de structuur en herhaling niet overeenkomen met typische natuurlijke bronnen zoals pulsars of quasars.
Ongebruikelijke frequenties en patronen: De signalen vertonen frequenties die niet overeenkomen met bekende natuurlijke bronnen, en de patronen vertonen een zekere periodiciteit die suggereert dat ze mogelijk door een intelligente bron worden uitgezonden.
Geen natuurlijke verklaring gevonden: Tot op heden zijn alle gangbare natuurlijke oorzaken voor dergelijke signalen uitgesloten of worden ze als uiterst onwaarschijnlijk beschouwd.
Deze verzameling van eigenschappen heeft geleid tot de bewering dat dit de ‘meest overtuigende aanwijzing’ is voor buitenaards leven die tot nu toe is gevonden.
Wetenschappelijke analyse van de bewijzen
1. De aard van de signalen
De signalen die zijn waargenomen, worden vaak aangeduid als 'gestructureerde radiogolfsignalen'. Ze vertonen patronen die niet voorkomen bij natuurlijke astronomische bronnen. In de context van SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) worden dergelijke patronen beschouwd als potentieel bewijs voor technologische activiteit.
De frequentieband waarop deze signalen worden ontvangen, ligt in het radiogebied dat vaak wordt gebruikt voor communicatie (tussen 1-10 GHz). Het feit dat de signalen herhaaldelijk worden waargenomen en patronen vertonen, versterkt de hypothese dat ze mogelijk het resultaat zijn van een intelligente zender.
2. Verwerkte data en verificatie
De data werden verzameld door grote radiotelescopen zoals de Arecibo Observatory en het MeerKAT-telescoop. Geavanceerde algoritmen en machine learning-technieken werden toegepast om de signalen te analyseren en te onderscheiden van achtergrondruis en natuurlijke bronnen.
Belangrijk is dat meerdere onafhankelijke observaties dezelfde patronen bevestigen, waardoor de betrouwbaarheid toeneemt. Echter, het blijft een uitdaging om definitief vast te stellen dat deze signalen niet het resultaat zijn van instrumentele artefacten of menselijke technologie.
3. Alternatieve natuurlijke verklaringen
Wetenschappers hebben verschillende natuurlijke verklaringen onderzocht, zoals:
Interferentie van menselijke technologie: Sommige signalen kunnen het gevolg zijn van aardse bronnen, zoals satellieten, communicatieapparatuur, of interferentie van de telescopen zelf.
Astrofysische objecten met nog niet begrepen fysische eigenschappen: Bijvoorbeeld, onbekende soorten sterren of objecten die mogelijk natuurlijke, maar nog niet gekende, mechanismen vertonen.
Interferentie of ruis: Sommige signalen kunnen artefacten zijn van de instrumenten of de omgeving.
Tot dusver hebben geen van deze verklaringen volstaan om de waargenomen patronen volledig te verklaren.
De interpretatie: waarom beschouwen sommige wetenschappers dit als de meest overtuigende aanwijzing?
Het argument dat deze signalen mogelijk buitenaardse intelligentie vertegenwoordigen, rust op het ontbreken van plausibele natuurlijke verklaringen, de herhaling en structuur van de patronen, en de afwezigheid van menselijke of aardse oorzaken die ze kunnen verklaren.
De SETI-gemeenschap benadrukt dat, hoewel het niet definitief bewijs is, deze waarnemingen de meest veelbelovende aanwijzingen vormen die ooit zijn gevonden. Ze suggereren dat het bestaan van technologische beschavingen in het universum niet langer een onwaarschijnlijkheid is.
De sceptische kant: waarom blijven wetenschappers sceptisch?
Ondanks de opwinding rond deze ontdekking, blijven veel wetenschappers uiterst voorzichtig en sceptisch. De belangrijkste redenen hiervoor zijn:
Het ontbreken van herhaalbaarheid en bevestiging: Voor een wetenschappelijke doorbraak is het cruciaal dat waarnemingen reproduceerbaar zijn en door onafhankelijke teams bevestigd kunnen worden. Tot nu toe is het moeilijk om de signalen consistent en voorspelbaar te herhalen.
Het risico op artefacten of menselijke interferentie: Radiogolfsignalen kunnen gemakkelijk worden vervormd door instrumenten, technische storingen, of menselijke bronnen. Het is mogelijk dat de signalen niet buitenaards zijn, maar het gevolg van aardse interferentie.
De complexiteit van het uitsluiten van natuurlijke oorzaken: Ondanks dat bekende natuurlijke bronnen worden uitgesloten, bestaat er altijd de mogelijkheid dat onbekende natuurlijke fenomenen de signalen veroorzaken.
Het ontbreken van aanvullende bewijzen: Signalen alleen vormen geen definitief bewijs voor buitenaards leven. Andere bewijzen, zoals detectie van chemische biosignaturen op exoplaneten of bevestigde technologische artefacten, zouden de zaak versterken.
Het risico op overhaaste conclusies: Wetenschap vereist voorzichtigheid en kritische analyse. Het is verleidelijk om te speculeren, maar zonder stevig bewijs is het onverantwoord om conclusies te trekken.
De rol van de wetenschap en de noodzaak van kritisch denken
In de wetenschap is het essentieel om open te staan voor nieuwe ideeën en ontdekkingen, maar ook om kritisch te blijven. De waargenomen signalen vormen een interessante en veelbelovende aanwijzing, maar kunnen niet worden beschouwd als definitief bewijs zonder verdere verificatie.
Het proces van wetenschappelijke validatie vereist dat observaties herhaald worden, dat alternatieve verklaringen worden uitgesloten, en dat de interpretatie gebaseerd is op rigoureus bewijs. Totdat deze stappen zijn gezet, blijft de conclusie dat er buitenaards leven is, voorlopig onhoudbaar.
Een stofje in een atmosfeer zoeken Hoe vind je een stofje in de atmosfeer van een planeet die 124 lichtjaar verderop staat? Dat werkt als volgt: de onderzoekers kijken toe op het moment dat een planeet voor zijn moederster langs beweegt. Op dat moment sijpelt een deel van het sterlicht door de atmosfeer van de planeet. Dat licht ontmoet daar allerlei gassen die hun stempel drukken op het spectrum van het sterlicht. En zo kan uit dat spectrum worden afgeleid welke gassen in de atmosfeer aanwezig zijn.
De maatschappelijke en filosofische implicaties
De ontdekking van buitenaards leven zou een revolutie teweegbrengen in onze kijk op het universum en onze plaats daarin. Het zou vragen oproepen over de aard van intelligentie, de evolutie van beschavingen, en de mogelijkheid van contact.
Tegelijkertijd onderstrepen de huidige sceptische houding en de behoefte aan bewijs het belang van wetenschappelijke integriteit. Het is essentieel dat de samenleving en de wetenschappelijke gemeenschap de juiste balans vinden tussen nieuwsgierigheid en kritische analyse.
Toekomstperspectieven
De komende jaren zullen cruciaal zijn voor het vervolg van deze ontdekking. Verbeteringen in telescooptechnologie, data-analyse, en internationale samenwerkingen kunnen leiden tot meer gedetailleerde en bevestigde waarnemingen.
Bovendien zullen nieuwe instrumenten, zoals de James Webb Space Telescope, in staat zijn om exoplaneten te bestuderen op mogelijke biosignaturen. Deze aanvullende bewijzen kunnen de hypothese van buitenaards leven verder versterken of weerleggen.
Met behulp van ruimtetelescoop James Webblijken in de atmosfeer van de planeet K2-18b tot twee stofjes ontdekt te zijn die hier op aarde alleen in de aanwezigheid van leven kunnen worden voortgebracht.
En daarmee zijn de onderzoekers naar eigen zeggen op ‘de meest overtuigende aanwijzing voor het bestaan van leven op een planeet buiten ons zonnestelsel’ gestuit. Hoewel de bevindingen opwindend zijn, blijven de ontdekkers ervan uitermate voorzichtig. Hard bewijs voor het bestaan van buitenaards leven is er ook na hun onderzoek namelijk nog altijd niet.
PLANEET K2-18bDat is te lezen in het blad The Astrophysical Journal Letters. De studie draait om de planeet K2-18b. Deze planeet bevindt zich op zo’n 124 lichtjaar afstand van de aarde en draait daar – in de leefbare zone – om zijn ster heen. De planeet is ongeveer 8,6 keer zwaarder en 2,6 keer groter dan onze eigen aarde. Eerdere observaties van James Webb onthulden al dat in de atmosfeer van K2-18b methaan en koolstofdioxide te vinden zijn. Dat hint erop dat K2-18b een zogenoemde ‘hyceaanse planeet’ is, die volledig bedekt is met water en ook een waterstofrijke atmosfeer kent.
Eerdere waarnemingen Naast methaan en koolstofdioxide werden tijdens eerdere observaties van K2-18b ook al zeer voorzichtige aanwijzingen gevonden voor de aanwezigheid van dimethylsylfide (DMS). Dat zorgde toen reeds voor enige opwinding. Want hier op aarde kan DMS alleen geproduceerd worden in de aanwezigheid van (voornamelijk kleine) organismen, zoals bijvoorbeeld fytoplankton. DMS wordt dan ook gezien als een potentiële biosignatuur. Biosignaturen zijn fysische of chemische verschijnselen die op zichzelf – of in combinatie met elkaar – getuigen van de aanwezigheid van leven.
DMS en DMDS Of DMS ook echt in de atmosfeer van K2-18b voorkomt, bleef na die eerdere observaties echter zeer twijfelachtig; daarvoor waren meer waarnemingen nodig. En nu hebben wetenschappers K2-18b dus wederom onder de loep genomen. Ze maakten daarbij opnieuw gebruik van ruimtetelescoop James Webb. Maar waar voor de eerdere observaties een beroep werd gedaan op Webb-instrumenten NIRISS (Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph) en NIRSPEC (Near-Infrared Spectrograph), gebruikten de onderzoekers nu Webbs MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument). En ook dat instrument hint op de aanwezigheid van dimethylsylfide (DMS) en/of dimethyldisulfide (DMDS). Beiden zijn lid van dezelfde chemische familie en beiden worden gezien als potentiële biosignaturen. “Dit is een onafhankelijke lijn van bewijs, waarvoor we een ander instrument en golflengtebereik van licht gebruikten dan eerder,” vertelt onderzoeker Nikku Madhusudhan. “En het signaal kwam sterk en duidelijk door.”
Oceaan vol leven “Eerder theoretisch werk had al voorspeld dat gassen als DMS en DMDS mogelijk in grote hoeveelheden op hyceaanse planeten voorkomen,” vertelt onderzoeker Nikku Madhusudhan. “En nu hebben we het – in lijn met die voorspellingen – ook geobserveerd. Op basis van alles wat we van deze planeet (K2-18b, red.) weten, lijkt een scenario dat stelt dat we hier te maken hebben met een hyceaanse wereld, bedekt met een oceaan die wemelt van het leven, het beste te passen bij de gegevens die we hebben.”
Slag om de arm En toch zul je Madhusudhan en collega’s niet horen zeggen dat ze buitenaards leven hebben ontdekt. Daar zijn een aantal redenen voor. Allereerst is er nog altijd een 0,3 procent kans dat hun metingen niet kloppen. Dat lijkt een verwaarloosbare kans, maar wetenschappers zien dat anders. Om de metingen als een daadwerkelijk wetenschappelijke ontdekking te mogen classificeren, moet die kans nog flink omlaag en zelfs onder de 0,00006 procent duiken. Maar zelfs als vervolgwaarnemingen nóg overtuigender zijn en het Madhusudhan en collega’s lukt om de statistische betrouwbaarheid van hun ontdekking op te krikken, is dat nog geen hard bewijs dat K2-18b leven herbergt. Want om die conclusie te kunnen trekken, moeten onderzoekers eerst zeker weten dat de waargenomen hoeveelheden DMS en/of DMDS in de atmosfeer van K2-18 alleen door leven – en dus niet door andere chemische processen – kunnen worden voortgebracht.
Startpunt“Onze studie is het startpunt voor alle onderzoeken die nodig zijn om de implicaties van deze opwindende resultaten te bevestigen en begrijpen,” benadrukt onderzoeker Savvas Constantinou. Collega Madhusudhan sluit zich daarbij aan. “Het is belangrijk dat we zeer sceptisch zijn over onze eigen resultaten, omdat we alleen door ze keer op keer te toetsen, in staat zijn om het punt te bereiken waarop we er zeker van kunnen zijn. Dat is hoe wetenschap werkt.”
We zullen vervolgonderzoek en -waarnemingen moeten afwachten om te achterhalen of deze ontdekking gezien kan worden als een scharnierpunt in onze zoektocht naar buitenaards leven. “Over decennia kunnen we hier zomaar op terugkijken en erkennen dat dit het moment was waarop het levende universum binnen bereik kwam,” stelt Madhusudhan. De tijd zal het leren…
Conclusie
De recente waarnemingen die worden beschouwd als ‘de meest overtuigende aanwijzing voor buitenaards leven tot nu toe’ vormen een belangrijke mijlpaal in de zoektocht naar buitenaards leven. Ze bieden hoop en inspiratie voor wetenschappers en het publiek, maar vragen tegelijkertijd om voorzichtigheid en kritische analyse.
De wetenschappelijke gemeenschap erkent de potentie van deze signalen, maar blijft sceptisch totdat de bewijzen worden bevestigd en alternatieve verklaringen volledig zijn uitgesloten. Dit benadrukt het fund
A Hole Opened Up in the Sun's Corona and Vented Helium-3
A Hole Opened Up in the Sun's Corona and Vented Helium-3
By Laurence Tognetti, MSc
SwRI scientists located the source of highest-ever concentration of a rare helium isotope emitted by the Sun. In this Solar Dynamics Observatory extreme ultraviolet image, the blue arrow marks a small bright point located at the edge of a coronal hole (outlined in red) that was the source of the phenomenon. (Credit: NASA/SDO/AIA)
What can Helium-3 (3He) being discharged from the Sun teach us about 3He creation and the Sun’s activity? This is what a recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal hopes to address as an international team of researchers investigated 3He-rich solar energetic particles (SEPs) emitted by the Sun in late 2023. This study has the potential to help astronomers better understand how solar activity could contribute to the production of 3He, the latter of which remains one of the most desired substances due to its potential for nuclear fusion technology on Earth.
For the study, the researchers used the joint NASA-ESA Solar Orbiter to observe the SEPs between October 24-25, 2023, which is currently located at 0.47 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun, or just under halfway between the Sun and the Earth. While SEPs are produced from solar flares or coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which happen regularly, SEPs typically release substances with increased levels of heavy ions like iron. Heavy ions are classified as possessing an atomic number (Z) greater than 10. However, the iron content (Z= 26) in this SEP was found to be normal, with the researchers surprised to discover increased levels of carbon (Z = 6), nitrogen (Z = 7), silicon (Z = 14), and sulfur (Z = 16) within the SEP.
The team then conducted a follow-up observation with NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which orbits the Earth in a circular, geosynchronous orbit at an altitude of 35,789 kilometers (22,238 miles), so significantly farther from the Sun than Solar Orbiter. In the end, SDO successfully identified the source of the SEP as a solar jet emanating from coronal hole, which is an area of the Sun where open magnetic field lines enable solar winds to escape to space and are often darker in color compared to the rest of the Sun’s surface.
“Surprisingly, the magnetic field strength in this region was weak, more typical of quiet solar areas rather than active regions,” said Dr. Radoslav Bučík, who is an astrophysicist at the Southwest Research Institute and lead author of the study. “This finding supports earlier theories suggesting that 3He enrichment is more likely in weakly magnetized plasma, where turbulence is minimal.”
Other Helium-3 Sources
The Sun produces 3He from the nuclear fusion occurring in its massive core when it converts hydrogen to helium. While this is part of the Sun’s natural processes that enable our planet to sustain life, producing 3He in a laboratory or other Earth-based setting has proven incredibly difficult due to the massive temperatures that have to be duplicated, often requiring a minimum of 100 million degrees Celsius (180 million degrees Fahrenheit).
While the Earth’s mantle contains traces of 3He from the planet’s formation, its decay over billions of years has converted most of the original 3He to Helium-4 (4He). Therefore, scientists have hypothesized that the closest location to obtain active samples of 3He is the lunar surface due to the solar wind’s daily bombardment, resulting in 3He becoming embedded in the lunar regolith (dust). However, it is estimated that successful processing of 1 gram (0.025 ounces) of 3He would require approximately 150 tons of lunar regolith to be mined. Additionally, successful nuclear fusion here on Earth has yet to be realized.
While humanity continues to struggle with nuclear fusion and the need for 3He, this study demonstrates the awesome power of the Sun and how much we still don’t know about its complex and intricate processes responsible for providing life-giving power here on Earth.
What new discoveries about solar activity and 3He will astronomers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
Beste bezoeker, Heb je zelf al ooit een vreemde waarneming gedaan, laat dit dan even weten via email aan Frederick Delaere opwww.ufomeldpunt.be. Deze onderzoekers behandelen jouw melding in volledige anonimiteit en met alle respect voor jouw privacy. Ze zijn kritisch, objectief maar open minded aangelegd en zullen jou steeds een verklaring geven voor jouw waarneming! DUS AARZEL NIET, ALS JE EEN ANTWOORD OP JOUW VRAGEN WENST, CONTACTEER FREDERICK. BIJ VOORBAAT DANK...
Druk op onderstaande knop om je bestand , jouw artikel naar mij te verzenden. INDIEN HET DE MOEITE WAARD IS, PLAATS IK HET OP DE BLOG ONDER DIVERSEN MET JOUW NAAM...
Druk op onderstaande knop om een berichtje achter te laten in mijn gastenboek
Alvast bedankt voor al jouw bezoekjes en jouw reacties. Nog een prettige dag verder!!!
Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 74 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
